Letter from the President

Henk Schenk

My last letter - it is amazing how three years have flown by! Last time I wrote about the days before our Congress in Geneva. I can tell you now that it has been a great success. Excellent science and almost perfect organisation. My congratulations to the organising and programme committees and to everybody who played a part in it; in particular to the key persons, Joel Bernstein and Menahem Kaftory

We had a successful General Assembly (GA) as well. New members for the Executive Committee (EC) and the Commissions have been elected and, in particular, the election for the EC was exciting. The GA had a very good discussion about the payment of dues of member countries with very weak economies. Other Adhering Bodies are initiating actions, which will enable us to keep them on board. The EC welcomes these initiatives, as it has to abide by the statutes in its decisions. We are very happy that our members feel so much loyalty. At the next GA we should have at least one more Adhering Body. Thailand has a strong and growing crystallographic community and will apply for membership of the IUCr in the coming year.

The EC meetings and the closed meetings of the Commissions also went very well. This is crucial for the IUCr as the plans for the future are developed at the time of the Congress. I believe all of this will place us in a very good position for the next triennium. There is a great enthusiasm for our Union!

The Commission on Journals met in Villigen three days before the Congress.

The journals are doing very well and also their rankings. We think that the availability of all back issues on line is important in this respect. But, of course, the enthusiasm and knowledgeability of our commission with its chair John Helliwell is the driving force, and last but not least our loyal and competent staff in Chester.

Isn’t it strange how a successful research project in general ends? After spending a lot of salaries and other costs to realize the project and to write an article, the copyright must finally be transferred to a scientific journal. In fact, transferred to industry, as the majority of journals are in commercial hands. So, the only product of a research project, the paper, is almost given away. However, crystallographers are in a much better position, as in our field the community itself owns the leading Journals. So in this way it is much easier for us to get permission for re-use of our material. Let us be happy that the IUCr owns our copyrights and treasure our Journals!

I want to thank you for the fantastic years I have had as President of our Union. So many people have made my job interesting, enjoyable and easier. In fact a list of their names could easily fill this page. All these fantastic visits all around the world with so many great hosts. All these volunteers, devoted to the work of our Union, organising meetings, arranging special projects. All these lively email-discussions with so many of you. And so on. Thank you all very much.

I also want to thank a few people in person: Sine Larsen, so nice and efficient to work with, Michiyoshi Tanaka, very wise and pleasant in his advice, Ted Baker for helping me to take over. And from the staff in Chester in particular Mike Dacombe, main node in our network, but also Anne Cawley, Jane Robinson, Andrea Sharpe, Brian McMahon and Peter Strickland.

Finally I wish our new president Bill Duax and his EC and all other IUCr workers, volunteers and professionals, a very successful triennium 2002-2005.