Olga Kennard awarded twelfth Ewald Prize

Olga Kennard (left) with Paul Peter Ewald at the Ninth IUCr Congress in Kyoto, Japan, in 1972.

We are delighted to announce that the twelfth Ewald Prize has been awarded to Olga Kennard (Cambridge, UK) for her invaluable pioneering contribution to the development of crystallographic databases, in particular the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), which as she early foresaw, has led "… to the discovery of new knowledge which transcends the results of individual experiment". Her own surveys using the CSD were fundamental in the development of crystal engineering, and are outstanding examples of the use of crystallographic databases as an essential tool for analysis and prediction. As founder of the CSD, director of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) over decades, and being involved in the founding of the Protein Data Bank (PDB), Olga Kennard has made a fundamental impact on the development of modern crystallography.

A small delegation, including the IUCr President, Sven Lidin, and IUCr staff, will present Dr Kennard with the Ewald Prize once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, and a representative will deliver Dr Kennard's Ewald Prize Lecture during the Prague Congress Opening Ceremony on 14 August 2021.

Dr Kennard told the IUCr that she is "enormously grateful for this, totally unexpected, recognition – through the Ewald Prize – of both my own work and the contribution of the many scientists who collaborated with me over many years". See a congratulatory message from Professor Lidin here, and read an account of Dr Kennard's life and work as told to the IUCr here.

For a list of papers by Dr Kennard appearing in IUCr journals click here. She also published a paper in the second issue of Acta Crystallographica in 1948 under her maiden name, Weisz.