AMERICAN CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER Number 4 Winter 2003 Dick Marsh to receive first Trueblood Award ACA - Chicago - July 2004 Winter 2003 Inside front cover Diversified 1 Table of Contents / President's Column Winter 2003 Table of Contents President's Column Presidentʼs Column ............................................................1-2 In my first Guest Editoral: Arthur Ellis ...............................................2-3 column as ACA News from Canada ............................................................... 3 President last Web Watch / News from NIH & NSF................................... 4 spring, I remarked on the willingness Announcing the Worldwide PDB / PDB Poster Prize........6-8 of ACA members Mini Book Reviews ...........................................................8-9 to work on behalf What's on the Cover............................................................ 11 of our science and Dick Marsh - 1st Ken Trueblood Award........................11-12 our organization. Madeline Jacobs - ACA Public Service Award..............12-13 I didnʼt know the Nguyen-Huu Zuong - Charles Supper Award..................... 13 half of it! I have Calls for Nominations....................................................13-14 been so gratified Howard McMurdie Retires at 98 ........................................ 15 by the opportunity to see, again and William Cochran ('22-'03) .............................................16-18 again throughout Harold Wyckoff ('27-'03) .................................................... 18 this past year, the Bertram Brockhouse ('18-'03) .......................................18-20 depth of dedica- Felix Bertaut ('13-'03) ......................................................... 20 tion of our mem- Protein Production & Crystallization Workshops............... 21 bers and the variety of tasks that they so willingly assume (and ACA Election Results / US Physics Team .....................23-24 often originate!) to make the ACA the vibrant and rewarding ACA Meeting Reports / Travel Awardee Reports..........25-34 association that it is. Despite the risk of omitting individuals ACA Corporate Members / Index of Advertisers................ 36 or groups deserving our recognition, it is appropriate for me to end these columns as I began them, with words of appreciation ACA Covington Commercial Exhibits ..........................36-41 for some of the many things done so well by our members for USNCCr / Survey of University Cirricula.....................42-44 our association. 8th Annual Structural Biology Symposium ...................46-48 Our annual meetings continue to grow, not just in numbers ACA Small Molecule Summer Course ..........................50-51 of attendees and complexity of arrangements, but also in their 61st Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference .........................53-57 central aspect -- the range, quality, and imagination of the science Contributors to ACA funds ............................................58-59 presented. The continually improving scientific vitality at our Future Meetings ................................................................. 60 meetings is due in large part to the increasing roles that the SIGs Editors: now play in program planning. Beginning two years ago in Los Angeles, the general structure of the following yearʼs meeting Connie Chidester Judith L. Flippen-Anderson program has been worked out in an intensive session involving 2115 Glenwood Dr. 3521 Launcelot Way Kalamazoo, MI 49008 Annandale, VA 22003 the program chairs and representatives from the SIGs. These tel. 269-342-1600 tel. 703-560-7436 planning sessions have progressed from a somewhat tentative fax 716-852-4846 fax 301-738-6255 start in 2001 to an exciting and provocative exchange of ideas at [email protected] [email protected] Covington for next yearʼs meeting in Chicago. The enthusiastic Articles by e-mail or on diskettes are especially welcome. Deadlines and innovative participation of the SIGs is responsible for the for newsletter contributions are: February 1 (Spring), May 1 (Sum- success of this mode of meeting planning. A most positive result mer), August 1 (Fall) and November 1 (Winter). Matters pertaining of this approach is the cooperative organization, by two or more to advertisements, membership inquiries, or use of the ACA mailing SIGs, of joint sessions that are of interest to a wider variety of list should be addressed to: our members. Indeed, such cooperative ventures promise to Marcia J. Colquhoun, Administrative Manager breathe fresh viewpoints, and hence fresh vitality, into the SIG American Crystallographic Association structure itself. Special symposia, especially those built around c/o Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute the interests of major award recipients, continue to be focal 73 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203-0906 points of our meetings, and we are especially appreciative of phone: 716-856-9600, ext. 321; FAX: 716-852-4846 the extensive efforts of members who organize these symposia. E-mail [email protected] The foresight, the flexibility in the face of shifting program and ACA HOME PAGE http://www.hwi.buffalo.edu/ACA/ financial requirements, and the inexhaustible attention to detail ACA Newsletter (ISSN 1958-9945) Number 4, 2003. Published four times per year in the spring, summer, of the meeting chairs and their planning committees are critical fall and winter for the membership of the American Crystallographic Association, P.O. Box 96, Ellicott to continued success of our meetings. Thanks to all those taking Station, Buffalo, NY 14205-0096. Membership in the ACA includes a non-deductible charge of $1.75 from part in organizing our annual meetings. membership dues to be applied to a subscription to the ACA Newsletter. Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, New York. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ACA, c/o 73 High St., Buffalo, NY, 14203. Student participation continues to be an important aspect of the ACAʼs activities, both at its annual meetings and throughout the 1 President's Column / Guest Editorial Winter 2003 Winter 2003 year. I thank the Young Scientists SIG for its increasingly active NSF Wants You For Peer Review role, both in encouraging students and other young scientists, and in the more general activities of our association. You will Through peer re- see elsewhere in this Newsletter some interesting notes from our view mechanisms, student travel awardees about their attendance at the Covington the NSF Division of meeting. (This reminds me of the necessity for our prospective Chemistry allocates meeting attendees from abroad – students and others -- to submit funds to support basic their visa applications as early as possible; six to nine months lead research and educa- time is recommended.) In the general area of crystallographic tion in the chemical education, we are grateful to the many members who worked so sciences. Doing this hard to put on two very successful ACA Crystallography Sum- mer Schools this year. You can read more about those important Arthur Ellis efforts elsewhere in this issue. effectively requires I have expressed before, and reiterate here, our appreciation to expert program of- our growing list of corporate members and exhibitors for their ficers and many vol- continued and varied support of the ACAʼs activities, both at unteers, who serve as annual meetings and throughout the year. reviewers of proposals. To carry out the peer review process in We cannot express enough appreciation for the effort that the the most effective way, NSF needs your help Newsletter Editors voluntarily commit to this important activity. Many more proposals of high quality than can be funded are They continue to amaze me with their technical and editorial received from the chemical sciences community. To ensure that skills, but even more with the patience and determination they the best possible funding recommendations are made, program bring to the huge job of collecting the articles, reports, graphics, officers solicit thoughtful reviews from respected members of our photos, and calendars that make this a superb newsletter. community. This process requires substantial service from our Though the ACA (like other organizations and most individuals) community, because the division requests nearly 10,000 reviews is not yet sailing in clear economic waters, our financial position a year. Reviewers are called upon to submit timely, constructively remains cautiously tenable. Many of the most important activities critical ad hoc reviews that enable principal investigators to en- of the ACA are made possible by donations to particular ACA hance the quality of their science. Reviewers are also asked to funds (for awards, for student travel, for support of our Latin serve on review panels that may require demanding travel. We American initiative). This newsletter contains a long list of thank those of you who have served as reviewers, and we will donors to ACA funds, and Iʼm sure you join me in appreciation continue to count on your assistance. of the generosity that motivates such contributions. If you have not served as a reviewer and desire to do so, let us I give special thanks to Charlie Carter, who is now finishing his know. A qualified reviewer is an established professional who term as ACA Past President and three years on the ACA Council, typically possesses a doctorate in chemistry or an allied field. both for his service to ACA and the excellent example he has set Up-to-date research