24th Congress and General Assembly of the IUCr

Hyderabad International Convention Centre, 21-28 August 2017, Hyderabad, India

[Hyderabad poster]

The next IUCr Congress in 2017 will be a state-of-the-art international convention set in the unique ambience of India. We extend a warm welcome to crystallographers from all across the world!

The programme will be cutting edge with plenaries, keynotes, microsymposia and posters, commercial exhibits, satellite meetings, workshops and official meetings of the IUCr. The organization and arrangements for this meeting are already well under way. The HICC is the first convention centre of its kind in South Asia and compares with the best in the world in infrastructure, technology and service. It has all the floor space to conduct an IUCr Congress and is a Green Globe certified convention centre. The Novotel, adjacent to HICC, is a 5-star hotel and the Congress has been able to secure 200 rooms here at a most competitive rate for the convenience of registrants.

The programme committee of 34 international experts has met in March 2016 and have chalked out a schedule of 3 plenaries, 39 keynote lectures and 120 microsymposia. The inauguration will take place on the evening of 21 August 2017 followed by seven full days of scientific sessions. The closing ceremony is on the evening of 28 August.

Workshops (half and full day) will be held on 21 August in the HICC and are free for all registered participants. Five satellite meetings are already confirmed and will take place just before or after the Congress.

This Congress will offer several new features for registered participants. These would include spot presentations by investigators and awards of ad hoc research grants, interactions between students and established crystallographers, electronic posters, electronic abstracts linked to IUCr journals and open access for all IUCr journals during the duration of the meeting, depending on budgetary factors. We will offer free registrations to scientific sessions for company representatives based on the generosity of their financial contributions. Gourmet complimentary lunches will be served to all registered participants for seven days.

The scope of the Congress is expanding towards disciplines related to crystallography and with a strong presence in the industrial sector. Hyderabad is an important pharmaceutical district in India, with more than 100 pharmaceutical industries located both within the city and its environs. We expect wide participation from these companies as well as from firms elsewhere in India and are working on a two-day registration package to facilitate their attendance. The package will be available to all participants to attend the Congress for any two consecutive days of their choice.

Hyderabad is centrally located in India with easy access via hubs in the Gulf and South East Asia. Non-stop flights from North America to Delhi ply daily. All participants will need to obtain conference visas to enter India. Please refer to our web page for details. Several hotels within easy shuttle distance of HICC will be identified as official hotels for the Congress. These hotels, which include chains like Lemon Tree, Radisson and Westin, are clean and efficiently managed. Affordable serviced apartments close to HICC and suitable for students and senior scientists are also available

As the International Year of Crystallography 2014 sought to bring people and countries together through the message of science, we will aim for at least one participant from each of 25 countries in Asia, Africa and South and Central America, who have been previously unrepresented in IUCr Congresses. Delegates will be chosen so as to effectively spread the idea of crystallography in their respective nations. This Congress is therefore offering, in addition to all the rest, new networking opportunities amongst scientists and crystallographers from more than 80 countries. This will create immense outreach for academia and industry with emerging countries. It is also hoped to arrange satellite meetings or meetings within the Congress for regional groupings of countries, say the Indian sub-continent or South East Europe or South America. The IUCr is also playing an active role in the organization of the Congress for the first time.

The Local Organizing Committee welcomes scientists, students and representatives from companies for what is already promising to be a magnificent occasion.

G. R. Desiraju, Chair (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
R. K. R. Jetti, Vice Chair (Mylan Laboratories, Hyderabad)
J. A. R. P. Sarma (Formerly from GVK Biosciences, Hyderabad)
K. Biradha (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur)
M. Zema (International Union of Crystallography and University of Pavia)
C. Malla Reddy (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata)
R. Banerjee (CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune)

The latest information on the Hyderabad Congress is available at www.iucr2017.org.

4 July 2016