The Changing Ecology of Crystallography?

Phil Coppens

The last half of 1995 has already witnessed two major meetings of the IUCr's Regional Associates, and a third, the triennial meeting of the Asian Crystallographic Association, AsCA, is to take place in November in Bangkok. The July ACA meeting in Montreal drew more than 1100 participants, well above the previous attendance record. The very broad participation of diffraction and scattering scientists evident at the meeting appears to be a direct result of the Special Interest Group activities. The SIG's organize their own sessions and extend invitations to specialists in their respective fields. The European meeting in Lund in August was also most successful. The lower attendance in Lund compared to Montreal may be a consequence of more centralized planning of the program and the different organization of European crystallography. Both meetings featured many exciting advances, including ·reports on new crystallographic experiments at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility presented in Lund.

The Asian Crystallographic meeting covers an extremely vast region. It is to the great credit of the organizers that a very attractive program has been put together for the meeting and the associated Gem and Computing Schools. The thriving of the regional meetings bodes well for the upcoming Congress of the Union, for which this Newsletter contains the call for papers. Like previous Congresses, the Seattle conference will allow in depth coverage of both fundamental and applied aspects of crystallography. A large number of prominent scientists including many Nobel Laureates have indicated their intention to attend the Congress. Attendance of young scientists will be stimulated by increased support from the Union's resources.

How important is the breadth of our meetings? A recent issue of Science contains an article entitled "The Changing Ecology of United States Science" (269, 1531, 1995). It has relevance beyond national boundaries. In the article the authors argue rhat the period of Science as the "Endless Frontier" based on a social contract in which sometimes unspecified and long-term curiosity-driven aims are presumed to lead to benefits justifying support, is coming to an end. They point to a changing societal environment, and advocate that, under a renegotiated contract, science should be driven by internal and external problems, not just curiosity.

While the exclusive concentration on approaches that are presumed to lead to solutions of societal problems seems perilous at best, and is bound to lead to the stifling of some of the most promising research, it is worthwhile to point out that crystallography has traditionally been in the forefront of sciences with enormous benefits to society. The dramatic development of structure-based drug design is just one example, that may not have been so clearly foreseen at the time the first X-ray photographs of proteins were obtained, or sodium chloride was investigated by the Braggs. Structural aspects of materials science, including alloys, polymers, thin films, superconducting materials, silicates and other complex solids, offer abundant examples. Nevertheless, we all must be aware of changing attitudes and act accordingly, building on the strengths of our field. In this context, the breadth of our meetings from purely fundamental to very applied topics becomes a great source of strength, that will ensure the continued flourishingof crystallography even under changing conditions.