BCA News September 2005 Contents From the President . 2 Council Members . 3 BCA Administrative From the Editor . 4 Office, Elaine Fulton, Northern Networking Events Ltd. Puzzle Corner/Corporate Members . 5 1 Tennant Avenue, College Milton South, East Kilbride, Glasgow G74 5NA ACA Summer Meeting - USA . 6-7 Scotland, UK Tel: + 44 1355 244966 Fax: + 44 1355 249959 Materials Special Interest Group . 7 e-mail: [email protected] CRYSTALLOGRAPHY NEWS is 38th International Course at Erice . 10 published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by the British Crystallographic Association. Rosalind Franklin Award . 12 Text should preferably be sent electronically as MSword documents (any version - .doc, .rtf or .txt files) or else on a PC disk. Diagrams and figures are most welcome, Diamonds at the Natural History Museum . 13 but please send them separately from text as .jpg, .gif, .tif, or .bmp files. Items may include technical articles, news about people (e.g. awards, honours, Letters to Ed. 14-15 retirements etc.), reports on past meetings of interest to crystallographers, notices of future meetings, historical reminiscences, letters to the editor, book, hardware or Groups . 16 software reviews. Please ensure that items for inclusion in the December 2005 issue are sent to the From the Continent . 20-21 Editor to arrive before 25th October 2005. Bob Gould 33 Charterhall Road Meetings of Interest . 22-23 EDINBURGH EH9 3HS Tel: 0131 667 7230 e-mail: [email protected] The British Crystallographic Association is a Registered Charity (#284718) As required by the DATA PROTECTION ACT, This month’s the BCA is notifying members that we ACA Summer store your contact information on a cover: Dominic computer database to simplify our Meeting: administration. These details are not Fortes (shown divulged to any others without your with his permission. You may inspect your entry during the Annual Meeting, or otherwise diffractometer) by application to the BCA Administrative was the winner Office. We will be happy to amend entries at any time. of this year’s PCG Thesis Prize at Loughborough (see page 17). The Designed & printed by Wm. Anderson & Sons Ltd. inset is a view of Lancaster, venue 34 Loanbank Quadrant, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 440 2881 for next year’s Spring Meeting. e-mail: [email protected] p6-7 Crystallography News September 2005 1 From the President AS I write this column, That is what is timetabled, but in the nature of these things, my summer vacation is the BCA president is always “on duty” at crystallographic over, IUCr in Florence is conferences and I anticipate many interesting discussions a few weeks away and and debates. (Note to potential candidates for BCA my own preparations for President next year - this is a GOOD THING). attending that meeting are in full swing. Of On issues which will not be resolved by the time this issue course, by the time you of Crystallography News arrives at you, it is my pleasure to read this IUCr will be issue a Call for Nominations for Honorary Members of the over, but nonetheless I BCA. This, our highest membership accolade, is awarded will outline my activities to a small and select band of colleagues who have there to indicate how the contributed significantly to crystallographic science and to BCA is represented on this international stage. the work of the BCA. Last year we elected Paul Barnes, Mike Glazer and George Sheldrick, and we anticipate It will be a busy time, primarily because of the wide range electing around the same number of new Honorary of science we will get the chance to listen to and discuss. Members in 2005. Your nominations are welcome, with a However, there is also much other business undertaken at short supporting case, to me at president@crystallography. an international crystallography congress. I am honoured org.uk, by the end of October please. to be leading the UK delegation to the General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography, and to be In this issue of Crystallography News you will find the outline accompanied on that delegation by colleagues Sheila programme for the 2006 Spring Meeting in Lancaster, with Gould, Elspeth Garman, John Evans and Bob Gould. its emphasis on crystallisation - fittingly in collaboration with We will do our best to represent the UK in that forum the British Association of Crystal Growth. Programme Chair and be fully involved in what look like being some lively Paul Raithby is pulling it all together, with Kevin Roberts discussions. We are of course optimistic that our nominee leading for the BACG; I hope you agree the evolving for the IUCr Executive, Chris Gilmore, will be elected. programme once again looks exciting and compelling - we look forward to attracting once again a large number of When it is not IUCr business in Florence, part of my time delegates. The BCA Young Crystallographers, who will once will be spent on European Crystallographic Association again be organising sessions at the Lancaster meeting, are matters. Among other issues, ECA Council will decide being organised along the lines of a special interest group, on a location for ECMs 25 and 26, in 2009 and 2010; in order to ensure continuity of their involvement within the as you will know we have made a bid to host one of BCA. This input from the Young Crystallographers, as well those European Meetings in Edinburgh, at the Edinburgh as being scientifically relevant, is also important with respect International Conference Centre. The bid has benefited to the educational remit of our Association. On that issue, enormously from input and assistance from Northern the draft BCA Education web-site should be available in Networking, in the person of Gill Moore, and from our early September at its temporary home www.chem.gla. colleagues at the EICC. The competition to host these ac.uk/BCAEducation, initially for comment before migrating meetings is keen as ever, with Darmstadt and Istanbul both to the main Web-site. submitting strong bids. We shall do our best to bring ECM to the UK. Chick Wilson BCA Council: Front Row Christine Cardin, John Finney, Chick Wilson and Sheila Gould. Back row: Bob Gould, John Helliwell, Sandy Blake, Jeremy Cockcroft, Sheila Gover, Elspeth Garman, Georgina Rosair, John Evans and Peter Moody. 2 Crystallography News September 2005 Council Members 2004-05 COUNCIL MEMBERS Dr Peter C.E. Moody (2006) EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Department of Biochemistry President (2006) Editor “Crystallography News” Adrian Building Prof. Chick Wilson Dr Robert Gould University of Leicester Department of 33 Charterhall Road University Road Chemistry EDINBURGH EH9 3HS LEICESTER LE1 7RH University of Glasgow Tel: 0131 667 7230 Tel: 0116 2523366 GLASGOW G12 8QQ [email protected] [email protected] Tel: 0141 330 8552 [email protected] Webmaster Dr Jeremy Karl Cockcroft Vice President (2007) GROUP REPRESENTATIVES Department of Chemistry Prof. John L. Finney Biological Structures University College London Department of Physics Dr Sheila Gover LONDON WC1H 0AJ & Astronomy 131 Main Road Tel: 020 7679 5802 University College Middleton Cheney [email protected] London, Gower Street BANBURY, OX17 2PW London WC1E 6BT Tel: 01295 711636 Tel: 020 7679 7850 [email protected] GROUP CHAIRMEN [email protected] Chemical Crystallography Biological Structures Group Secretary (2007) Dr Georgina Rosair Dr Richard Pauptit Prof. Christine Cardin School of EPS - Chemistry Protein Structure Lab University of Reading Perkin Building AstraZeneca Dept of Chemistry Heriot-Watt University Mereside Whiteknights EDINBURGH EH14 4AS Alderley ParK READING RG6 6AD Tel: 0131 451 8036/4241 MACCLESFIELD SK10 4TG, Tel: 0118 9318215 Fax: 0131 451 3180 Tel: 01625 516135 c.j.cardin@reading. [email protected] [email protected] ac.uk Industrial Chemical Crystallography Group Treasurer (2008) Ms Judith Shackleton Dr Simon Parsons Dr Sheila Gould Manchester Materials Science Centre School of Chemistry 33 Charterhall Road, Grosvenor Street University of Edinburgh EDINBURGH EH9 3HS MANCHESTER M1 7HS EDINBURGH EH9 3JJ Tel: 0131 667 7230 Tel: 0161 200 3581 Tel. 0131 650 5804 treasurer@ Fax: 0161 200 3586 [email protected] crystallography.org.uk [email protected] Industrial Group Physical Crystallography Dr Jeremy Karl Cockcroft ORDINARY MEMBERS Dr John Evans Department of Chemistry Department of Chemistry University College London Dr Alexander J. Blake (2006) University of Durham LONDON WC1H 0AJ School of Chemistry DURHAM DH1 3LE Tel: 020 7679 5802 University of Nottingham Tel: 0191 334 2093 / 2052 (lab) [email protected] University Park Fax: 0191 384 1297 NOTTINGHAM NG7 2RD [email protected] Physical Crystallography Group Tel: 0115 9513488 Professor Paolo Radaelli [email protected] Isis Facility Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Dr Elspeth F. Garman (2006) CO-OPTED MEMBERS Chilton Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics Professor John Helliwell DIDCOT OX11 0QX Rex Richards Building Department of Chemistry tel: 01235 445685 University of Oxford University of Manchester [email protected] South Parks Road MANCHESTER M13 9PL OXFORD OX1 3QU Tel: 0161 2754686 Tel: 01865 275398 [email protected] [email protected] Full committee details on the BCA website www.crystallography.org.uk Acknowledgements: The British Crystallographic Association is grateful to Birkbeck College, University of London, who host and manage the server for our website. Crystallography News September 2005 3 From the Editor ONCE again, the IUCr A cheerful face appearing for the first time in this issue is about to take place is that of Elaine Fulton, who is now, as Assistant to Gill as we go to press, Moore, the main “voice on the phone” at the BCA Office. and, as the President Unusually for this day-and-age, you will have to learn her points out, you will not surname, as there are two Elaines at Northern Networking be reading this until Events.