2000 Annual Meeting of CrSJ: IUCr President in Japan

The Annual Meeting 2000 and General Assembly of the Crystallographic Society of Japan was held in Sendai, Japan from Nov. 21-23, 2000. The meeting featured two plenary lectures, 205 oral and poster presentations covering all aspects of crystallography, an industrial exhibition and a special symposium marking the 50^th anniversary of the CrSJ. Over 350 crystallographers attended.

In his plenary lecture Structure Determination of Molecular Crystals Directly from Powder Diffraction Data, K.D.M. Harris (Birmingham, U.K.) described structure solution using the Genetic Algorithm. In her plenary lecture The structure and function of a highly proficient enzyme: orotidine 5´-monophosphate decarboxylase (ODCase), S. Larsen (Copenhagen, Denmark) discussed the unique arrangement of completely conserved lysine and aspartate residues in the enzyme.

In the 50^th anniversary symposium, 12 young and 4 senior crystallographers presented lectures on cryogenic protein crystallography (M. Nakasako, U. of Tokyo), analysis of cytochrome c oxidase (E. Yamashita, Osaka U.), neutron crystallographic analysis of DNA and hydration networks related to genetic information (T. Chatake, Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst.), small angle scattering with synchrotron radiation (T. Fujisawa, RIKEN), rapid crystal structure determination (H. Uekusa, Tokyo Inst. of Technology), photofunctional molecular materials (T. Yamada, Kyushu U.), magnetic conductors (H. Fujiwara, Inst. for Molecular Science), micrometer sized single crystal analysis in materials science (Y. Kojima, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.), electron diffraction (K. Tsuda, Tohoku U.), accurate structure by synchrotron X-ray diffraction (E. Nishibori, Nagoya U.), orbital ordering of YTiO₃ observed by resonant X-ray scattering (H. Nakao, KEK-PF), ab-initio structure determination from synchrotron radiation powder diffraction (S. Yamazaki, INAX Corp.), the future of X-ray, SR, neutron diffraction and structural physics (Y. Noda, Tohoku U.), structures of earth and planetary materials (T. Yamanaka, Osaka U.), the future of chemical crystallography (K. Toriumi, Himeji Inst. of Technology), and keeping a pioneer spirit (N. Sakabe, Foundation for Advancement of Int'l Science).

At the General Assembly, IUCr President H. Schenk presented a congratulatory message for the 50th anniversary of CrSJ. The banquet was held at the Special Guest House of historic Sake brewer, Shozann-kan.

A full program of the meeting can be viewed at the CrSJ website wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/crsj/index-e.html. The Local Chair was Y. Noda (Tohoku U.) and the Program Chair M. Terauchi (Tohoku U.).

Masaki Takata, Nagoya, Japan