President's Letter – Summer 2025

In approximately one year, we will have our triennial meeting in Calgary, Canada, including our 27th Congress and General Assembly. This is the most important event in the IUCr calendar, and we have been preparing for it for two years since the end of our 26th Congress in Melbourne, Australia.

We are on our way to our centennial as an organization and already have memories of important previous events on five continents. The history of the IUCr is particularly significant in North America as we have met on six occasions: Montreal (1957), Stony Brook (1969), Ottawa (1981), Seattle (1996), Montreal (2014) and, in particular, the first Congress and General Assembly took place at Harvard in 1948. This letter gives me the opportunity to express my strongest support for academic institutions like Harvard University, where this Union was first presented, in its fight for the principles that underpin academic institutions: freedom, respect, fraternity, rigor and independence. These are spaces for free thought in the face of impositions, and which constitute the foundation of progress and the future of humanity.

The world and science have changed a lot since 1948, and not always in the right direction. In these times, we may be threatened by changes in society or by conflict, but the IUCr continues to base its actions on scientific truth and to support the free movement of scientists and collaboration without borders. This summer as a show of support for the crystallographers and structural scientists of Ukraine, the Executive Committee and Finance Committee of the IUCr will hold their meetings at ECM35, which has been relocated to Poznań.

Other regional association meetings will take place in Algiers, Algeria (AfCA), Fortaleza, Brasil (LACA) and Taipei, Taiwan (AsCA) in October and December of this year. I will personally attend the AfCA and AsCA meetings. Last year, I attended the ECM34/EPDIC18 in Padova, the LACA meeting in Montevideo and, with the Finance Committee (FC) and Executive Committee (EC), the ACA in Denver. The American Crystallographic Association recently held its 75th Annual Meeting in Lombard, Illinois.

The IUCr would like to support as many structural scientists as possible in their endeavours through travel support and other initiatives. In order to do this we must support our journals. Any excess funds from our publishing activities go, via our Meeting Support Committee, to young researchers to help them attend conferences and schools. The commitment of our community of structural scientists to publish in our 10 IUCr Journals is vital to fund such initiatives. This call is especially important for the younger generations of structural scientists and their senior supervisors to submit their research to our journals. Also, the involvement of industrial research within our Union can help formalize our connection with this productive sector and ensure that our journals are also a means of agile communication of the structural science research carried out there. Our journals guarantee rigorous and expert scientific review of the manuscripts they publish. They feature in the highest rankings for structural science and have the option of affordable open access.

Looking forward to next year, the call for nominations for the IUCr Ewald, W. H. & W. L. Bragg, and Struchkov awards, which will be presented in Calgary, is now open. It is important that all eligible candidates submit their nominations to ensure the quality and diversity of the selection process by the selection committees. The deadline for all nominations is 30 November.

While our more than 75 years of history and the achievements of our pioneers and the brilliant generations that followed, whom we admire and respect, are very important, it is essential to look to the future. That is why, both at regional association level and through the newly formed IUCr Early Career Scientists Division (ECSD), young researchers must speak out and gradually take the lead in our Union as the only guarantee for the future. For our publications, the Early Career Researcher Boards are taking shape and will have an influence on what is published in our journals. Refreshing the Commission members and consultants and the Executive Committee officers at the Congress next year is also an excellent opportunity to include younger researchers and increase diversity.

The IPC's hard work is nearing completion to ensure the best programme for an excellent Congress in Calgary. The work of Louise Dawe, Amy Sarjeant and Stephen Burley has been intense and excellent, as has that of all the representatives of the IUCr Commissions and Committees. The contribution of, and experience from, the Melbourne Congress and the effective link with our future Congress in Berlin in 2029 has been very important. Brendan Kennedy and Manfred Weiss, together with the Co-chairs of IUCr2026, will enable us to correct errors and improve the guidelines for future Congresses. We may not have been able to have all the speakers we would like but we have aimed for maximum diversity without compromising the appeal and high scientific level of our event. I would like to draw your attention to four microsymposia proposed by the new IUCr ECSD and the EC itself, 'Career panel’, ‘Current challenges and new strategies for the IUCr Journals’, ‘Inclusion and belonging in structural science’ and `IUCr purpose vision and values’. It is important that we all participate in the meeting, express our opinions and provide contributions to define the future of the IUCr, and make it attractive to new generations of structural scientists, expanding our community in new directions.

As usual, I end this letter with deep gratitude to all those who form and make our organization work, the Regional Associates, the IUCr Commissions and Committees, Editors, Co-editors, referees and authors of our journals, our Chester staff and all individual structural scientists.

Thanks to IUCr Newsletter Editor Mike Glazer, and his team, and thanks to all contributors for making possible, as with every issue, a new issue that continues to be the reference communication for our community.

Thank you all for helping to keep the momentum of the IUCr going, wherever you are in the world.