ACA/PDC Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA

The 1992 Annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association was held jointly with the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Aug. 9-14. The meeting featured 33 sessions organized by the special interest groups of the ACA that covered the entire spectrum of crystallographic and diffraction analyses. The meeting attracted a record-breaking 960 attendees. Innovations of this year's meeting included a session of Talks for High School Teachers and a Poster Preview Session.

Seven high school teachers from the Pittsburgh area and over 150 crystallographers attended a session designed to foster cooperation between crystallographers and high school teachers in stimulating student interest in science. J. Glusker, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, eloquently demonstrated how to communicate the principles of crystallography to young people through carefully chosen words, clever analogies, and simple, inexpensive, and effective models. W. L. Duax described workshops for high school students conducted at the Medical Foundation of Buffalo (MFB), that include exercises in molecule model building, single crystal growth, and computer graphic modeling, L. De Luca, astronaut/crystallographer, from the U. of Alabama Center for Macromolecular Crystallography, brilliantly described the excitement of conducting crystal growth experiments in zero gravity. The high school teachers toured the Pittsburgh Crystallography Dept., tested classroom crystallization kits designed by J. Luft (MFB) and received a set of diffraction patterns illustrating symmetries. A similar session is being considered for the 1993 meeting in Albuquerque.

A selected sample of poster presentations in the areas of inorganic, organic, organometallic, and biological small molecules was the subject of 30 three minute presentations on the opening day of the meeting. The session provided a quick overview of the field of small molecule single crystal analysis. Common themes included systematic studies of families of molecules, temperature dependent studies, and efforts to correlate structures with chemical, physical, or biological properties. A number of young crystallographers were given their first opportunity to address a national audience. The audience response to the innovative session was favorable.

D. L. D. Casper, Brandeis U. presented the Fankuchen Award Lecture: Protein Adaptability: Quasiequivalence, Plasticity, and Switching. The subject of this year's workshop organized by K. Onan of the Continuing Education Committee was "Communicating Crystallographic Results: Will They Believe You? And Will They Fund You?" The 1992 ACA Transactions Symposium, organized by D. Dorset, was devoted to the field of electron crystallography. Areas of application include: thin mesogenic and/or Langmuir-Blodgett layers, two-dimensional protein crystals, and thin molecular crystals, including linear polymers. A session on Chiral Discrimination in Crystallographic Process concluded with a memorial to Peggy Etter of the University of Minnesota. The ACA has established a student travel fund bearing Peggy's name.

A young scientist special interest group was formed at the Pittsburgh meeting to address the needs and concerns of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in all areas of X-ray crystallographic research. With financial support from the IUCr, US corporate donors, and ACA members travel assistance awards were made to 24 students from the US, Canada, and abroad. The annual Pauling Prizes were awarded to five graduate students who, by their poster-represented work, demonstrate a high degree of knowledge, originality, and perseverance in their nascent research careers.

A full report on the meeting including summaries and highlights of all scientific sessions appeared in the Sept. issue of the ACA Newsletter. Copies are available upon request from M. J. Vair, ACA Administrative Manager.