Letter from the President 

In May 7 to 12, I attended the 3rd Moroccan Crystallographic School held in Agadir. There were more than 70 crystallographers including the students. The meeting of the Moroccan Crystallographic Association was also held in one evening. I am very sorry to say that the Moroccan Crystallographic Association is a member of European Crystallographic Association, ECA, but is not a member of IUCr. I considered what IUCr should do for the crystallographers in such developing countries.

As written in Statues, one of the objects of IUCr is to adhere to the International Council of Science, ICSU. The most important mission of ICSU is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society since its establishment in 1931. The principle of the universality of science has been embedded in the statutes of ICSU from its very early days. All members agree to adhere to this principle and it provides a model of equity and non-discrimination across the international science community.

The membership of ICSU is consisting of three categories. The first one is composed of national members. The number of the national members is 104 in 2006. The second one is scientific union members, in which are included not only the IUCr but also IUPAB (International Union of Pure and Applied Biology), IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry), IUPAP (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics), IUGS (International Union of Geological Sciences), IUBMB (International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), IUMRS (International Union of Materials Research Societies) and so on. The number of the union members is 29. The third one is composed of scientific associates, whose number is 23. In the General Assembly 76 of 104 national members and 29 scientific unions have full voting rights. The past president of IUCr, Dr. W. Duax, attended the General Assembly as a representative of IUCr. In order to achieve the objects of ICSU, the close contact and cooperation between science council and scientific unions in each country are indispensable.

The number of membership countries of IUCr is only 40 national crystallographic associations and adhering body. This is too small compared with 104 or 76 national members of ICSU. Morocco is, of course, one of national members of ICSU. However, the Moroccan Crystallographic Association is not a member of IUCr. When I saw the list of national members of ICSU, there are many countries in the same circumstance as Morocco.

It must be emphasized that the member of IUCr should pay the membership fee. There are five categories for the membership fee from I to V. For the category I the fee is CHF 1,000 per each year, which is about USD 830. This payment is not so easy for the national crystallographic associations with small members. I know several Asian countries, in which there are only a few crystallographers. It seems difficult for such crystallographic associations to pay the membership fee.

In order to welcome their opinions and activities to IUCr, we must invite them to IUCr as members. To find out the ways how to reduce their financial duty and how to get the benefit from IUCr is the most important for the future of IUCr. I already sent one proposal to Executive Committee. In the Leuven meeting of EC the proposal will be discussed. The result will be informed to the regional and national crystallographic associations as soon as possible.

Yuji Ohashi, yohashi@spring8.or.jp