Letter from the President

This is the first Newsletter of the International Union of Crystallography. It will be sent free of charge to everyone listed in the World Directory of Crystallographers, and it is, therefore, the first opportunity given to the President of the IUCr to address all of you directly.

The International Union of Crystallography was founded just after the Second World War. All of the forefathers of our discipline were still around, and it was their former students who were then the leaders of the various crystallographic groups throughout the world. The number of crystallographers was not very large; 2,255 coming from 52 countries were listed in the first edition of the World Directory, and there was a strong feeling of belonging to a single family. In the 45 years which have elapsed since, major changes have taken place in the World. New Sciences have appeared, and crystallography has undergone a complete renewal, in particular, due to the development of neutron diffraction, high resolution electron microscopy, synchrotron radiation, computers, computing, and imaging techniques. The interaction of crystallography with other disciplines and with industry has grown steadily during this time. The range of its applications has widened considerably. As structure determinations have become routine jobs, except in complex cases, crystallography has been playing a more and more important role in the study of biologically important macromolecules and in drug design, in crystal engineering for optical devices, and in understanding high-T_c superconductors, in locating atoms at crystal surfaces and in showing how crystal defects affect physical properties, etc. The number of crystallographers has more than quadrupled during that period, growing to nearly 10,000 from 70 countries in the 1990 edition of the World Directory. Despite the variety of the subdisciplines to which they now belong, they are still linked together by the definition which was given by Helen Megaw in 1965: "Crystallography is the branch of science concerned with the description and understanding of the structure and properties of condensed matter in terms of the spatial relationships of atoms and interatomic forces in an extended array."

The primary goal of the IUCr Newsletter is to reassert and to maintain this unity among crystallographers from all nations and all subdisciplines, by offering them a forum where they can follow the evolution of crystallography and where they can express their opinions. But it is also to explain the activities of the International Union of Crystallography and to give crystallographers the possibility, either through Letters to the Editor, or through their delegates at the General Assemblies, to comment on and influence the actions of the IUCr.

IUCr Executive Committee: Front row: Vice President A. Kalman (Hungary); President A. Authier (France); Past President M. Nardelli (Italy); General Secretary and Treasurer A. Hordvik (Norway). Back row: Members R. Chidambaram (India); P. Coppens (USA); R. Diamond (UK); P. Codding (Canada); Executive Secretary J. King (UK); Secretary A. Cawley; J. Harada (Japan); and Y. Struchkov (Russia).

The IUCr was founded with the objective of "contributing to the advancement of crystallography and promoting international cooperation" in that field. Its activities to achieve this aim have multiplied over the years. They are the results of the combined efforts of the members and chairpersons of the 17 Commissions of the Union, of the members of the Executive Committee, and of the Chester Office, where the Executive Secretary, Jim King, and the Technical Editor, Mike Dacombe, work daily with their staff of 16. The IUCr, by keeping its finances healthy, thanks to the success of its publications, particularly Acta Crystallographica, and through a healthy investment policy, has given itself the means to expand its activities so dramatically in recent years. The IUCr is thus able to launch, this January, a new section of Acta Crystallographica devoted to Biological Crystallography, filling a need in a rapidly developing field. The Ewald Prize, established for outstanding contributions to the science of crystallography, and which was first awarded in 1987, has now been raised to $25,000. The IUCr is sponsoring as many as 20 meetings and schools per year; including events organized by its Commissions and its Regional Associates, the European Crystallographic Committee, the Asian Crystallographic Association, and the American Crystallographic Association, and many others as well. The total support to young scientists attending these meetings and schools will be equal to 100,000 Swiss francs for 1993. The IUCr has initiated a program of Visiting Professors in developing countries, sending out one or two Visiting Professors every year, and we hope this number will increase in coming years. Thanks to the IUCr-sponsored development of a standard file structure format for storage, archiving, and retrieval of data, STAR, and its crystallographic application, Crystallographic Information File (CIF), we are at the forefront of publication and communication techniques, and of handling data in a flexible and reliable way. Submission of Acta C manuscripts in CIF form started in Jan. 1992, and the crystal structures they contain are automatically checked. About 25% of them are now submitted electronically. CIF is being used by more and more databases, and many of the major software packages are adapting their software to CIF's. The collection of the data for the next edition of the World Directory will be in that form. Other organizations, as well, are now beginning to adopt these file formats as a standard.

The triennial Congresses and General Assemblies are occasions for crystallographers to meet, exchange scientific results, and review the policy of the IUCr. The XVI Congress and General Assembly will take place in Beijing this summer at the invitation of our Chinese colleagues. I am looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible in Beijing.