A letter of thanks to the Prague IUCr Congress Organizers

Mariusz Jaskolski
[Letter to the Editor]
Professor Mariusz Jaskolski
Department of Crystallography
Faculty of Chemistry
A. Mickiewicz University
Poznan
POLAND

22 August 2021


I think we all owe a note of appreciation to our Czech colleagues who organized the 25th IUCr Congress in Prague (and in cyberspace).

Not only had they to organize a hybrid Congress for the first time in the history of the IUCr; worse than that: they had a “normal” Congress almost ready in mid-2020, then had to go through a wave of hellish uncertainty, to finally have to face a total crash of the 2020 meeting. They withstood the blow bravely and immediately started putting together the 2021 Congress in a mixed mode, which by itself would be a sufficiently tall challenge. We should also remember that at some point on this road Czechia was the worst hit nation in Europe.

In the end we’ve had a very successful Congress and a totally new experience. Finally, after a long period of abstinence we could meet our friends, even if only virtually (I was myself a virtual participant).

Looking back upon this disastrous period of almost two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think we should be grateful to our overseers that the 2020/21 Congress was put in the hands of our Czech colleagues. With the typical level-headed Czech view of things, calm perseverance and even a touch of humour, they were able to accomplish a task that with a more pessimistic attitude would seem to be totally impossible.

I am sure I will express the feeling of many participants, real and virtual, and indeed of our community, if I send a Big Thank You to Radek, Pavlina, Ivana and all our Czech Friends who have accomplished the impossible!

7 September 2021

Copyright © - All Rights Reserved - International Union of Crystallography

The permanent URL for this article is https://www.iucr.org/news/newsletter/volume-29/number-3/a-letter-of-thanks-to-the-prague-iucr-congress-organizers