Fifty Years of the IUCr

Ted Baker

The year 1998 is a special one for the IUCr, because it marks 50 years since the formation of the Union. Many, like me, will have grown up with the Union, reading Acta Crystallographica, using the International Tables and attending the triennial Congresses, but perhaps being poorly aware of its history. This, however, is a year to celebrate the past and to look to the future. A very interesting account of the formation and early days of the IUCr has been written by Harmke Kamminge [Acta Cryst. A45, 581-601 (1989)]. I would like to highlight two aspects. The first is the importance of our publishing activities. A major factor in the formation of the Union was the desire to establish an international journal, run by the crystallographic community, for their benefit. Acta Crystallographica, first published in 1948 under its founding Editor, P. P. Ewald, has been a manifest success. It has expanded in scope and quality, as have our other publications, and between them they support most of our activities. The second is the remarkable breadth of crystallography, in that it reaches into the major disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology. This interdisciplinary character was never more eloquently expressed than by Dorothy Hodgkin in her Nobel Lecture, describing the environment in J. D. Bernal's Cambridge laboratory: "There our scientific world ceased to know any boundaries. In a sub-department of Mineralogy, changed during my stay into one of Physics, we explored the crystallography of a wide variery of natural products, the structure of liquids, particularly water, Rochelle salt, isomorphous replacement and phase determination, metal crystals and pepsin crystals and speculated about muscular contraction". It is this focus on crystallography, but breadth of application, that enabled our first President, Sir Lawrence Bragg, to successfully argue against our absorption into any larger, discipline-based, Union. During 1998 the IUCr will support special symposia at each of the regional meetings of the American, Asian and European Crystallographic Associations. These are intended to celebrate the history of the IUCr, and the remarkable achievements of crystallography in biology, chemistry and physics. Organisations such as the IUCr are only of value, however, if they support the needs and aspirations of the international community. I believe there are real needs. We must support young scientists. Our journals face new challenges and vital international facilities, such as structural databases, need our support to remain freely available. Crystallography is still developing. The European Crystallographic Meeting held last year in Portugal, which I enjoyed immensely, highlighted another country with rapidly-growing crystallographic strength, and also heralded a new era in European crystallography, with the formation of the European Crystallographic Association. Bur there are still regions where crystallography is only just beginning, and here the IUCr has a special role to play.