Commission on High Pressure

Report for 2007 of the IUCr Commission on High Pressure

Combining high pressure with crystallography remains a very challenging and growing field with a big variety of technical developments and scientific applications. The mission of the IUCr commission on high pressure is to provide platforms which help disseminating and exchanging new techniques, ideas and scientific achievements in this field. The main tools to achieve this goal are special workshops in each of the two years between the triennial IUCr congresses. In the years of the triennial congress and general assembly the commission tries to integrate this workshop into the congress by organizing microsymposia specifically targeted to high-pressure crystallography.

The 2007 workshop was held between September 3rd and September 7th at Wadham College in Oxford, UK. Commission Secretary John Loveday acted as the local organizer. This workshop was again a big success. 85 participants gathered in a historic music pavilion to follow 11 oral sessions and poster presentations. The workshop was finished with a tour through the new synchrotron facility (Diamond) and the highly successful ISIS neutron spallation source at Ruherford Appleton Laboratory.

This workshop enabled us to have a closed commission meeting. 7 commission members were present (Martin Kunz, Chair, John Tse (Treasurer), John Loveday (Secretary), Simon Redfern, Sarah Tolbert, Roland Winter (Richard Nelmes (Consultant)). The following topics were discussed:

IUCr 2008

Nom Hamaya is is representing the commissions in the program committee. We were able to have two of the three proposed keynote speakers and 6 microsymposia approved:

Keynote Lecturers

Giulia Galli (USA): Chair: A. Oganov (CH): Computational Crystallography at high-pressure.
Igor Goncharenko (F): Chair: O. Shimomura (J): Advances in high-pressure neutron diffraction.

Microsymposia:

6 proposed, 6 approved. 2 of which joint with other commission.
- Biological and soft condensed matter under pressure. Chair: Francesca Fabbiani (UK), co-chair: Roland Winter (D). Joint with commission for chemical crystallography.
- Computational Crystallography at extreme conditions: Chair: Rajeev Ahuja (Sw), co-chair: John Tse (Ca).
- High Pressure studies on advanced and nano-materials: Chair: Natalie Dubrovisnkaia (D), co-chair: Vladimir Solozhenko (F)
- Phase transitions and physical properties at high pressure: Chair: Robin Benedetti (USA), co-chair: Guoyin Shen (USA).
- Liquids and amorphous systems at high pressure. Chair; Malcolm Guthrie (UK), co-chair: Yoshinori Katayama (J).
- Crystallography of planetary materials at extreme conditions. Chair: T. Yagi (J), co-chair: John Parise (USA) Joint with Commission for Inorganic materials and minerals.

Commission Members

As of the IUCr-2008, a series of commission members will have to retire (term-limit) including the secretary, treasurer and chair. These are:

  • M. Kunz Chair (USA, since 2002)
  • J.S. Loveday Secretary (UK, 2002)
  • J. Tse Treasurer (Canada, 2002)
  • N. Hamaya (Japan, 2002)
  • M. Mezouar (France, 2002)
  • S. Tolbert (USA, 2002)
  • R. Winter (Germany, 2002)

Some of the departures can be replaced with current consultants (Ross Angel, Przemek Dera, Guoyin Shen), which in turn should be replaced. The commission starts collecting proposals for replacements while keeping in mind to have all current sub-fields of high-pressure crystallography represented (e.g. neutrons, synchrotrons, material science, biology and soft matter etc). In addition to the commission’s candidates, country representatives can also nominate commission members. In view of the upcoming workshop 2009 in China, it would also be sensible to have a Chinese representative in the commission. Haozhe Liu, formerly at APS now in Bejing, offered to help with local contacts for the 2009-workshop.

Webpage

The current webpage is in dire state. This is relevant since for many outsiders, the IUCr-commissions webpage is potentially their first view into our field. In order to ensure continuing update, it is suggested that an institution should sign responsible for the webpage and delegate the work to a postdoc. If this postdoc moves on, the job should be passed on to her/his successor. The Edinburgh Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions volunteered to assign a postdoc to this job. At the moment this will be Ingo Loa.

The workshop in 2009 will be held in Harbin (Heilongjiang Province, NE China). The commission hopes this workshop to be a starting point to intensify scientific exchange with the Chinese high-pressure crystallography community.

In 2009, commission consultant Przemek Dera is organizing a summer school on high-pressure crystallography in Erice. The school is scheduled to take place June 4 through June 14 2009 in Erice, Sicily. This as a follow up on the very successful summer school organized in 2003.

These pages are maintained by the Commission Last updated: 15 Oct 2021