As the Millennium draws to a close,
August sees the United Kingdom playing host to the 18th IUCr
Congress, which is expected to be the biggest yet with over 2500
delegates attending. The host city for the congress is Scotland's
other great city, Glasgow, renowned for its hospitality and liveliness
as well as boasting a wealth of cultural amenities and awards,
including the title of UK City of Architecture and Design 1999.
Running from 4th August until 13th, the Congress will take place
at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), one
of the most modern and attractive conference centres in Europe
and conveniently located in the heart of Glasgow yet only 20
minutes from the International Airport. The Congress will present
new and exciting advances in all areas of crystallography and
will serve to highlight the crucial role played by crystallography
in pushing back scientific frontiers across a wide spectrum of
scientific disciplines.The Congress lecture programme is split into 5 broad brush categories covering chemical, biological, theoretical/fundamental, materials and industrial applications of crystallography, with considerable overlap between these categories. This year however, industrial crystallography and its applications takes on a more prominent role with 14 'Industrial' micro-symposia being incorporated into the main body of the Congress(between 4th and 10th August) instead of satellite meetings as in previous years.
The programme schedule operates a 'sandwich' type structure. There will be two keynote lectures running in parallel both at the beginning and at the end of each day with the filling consisting of two sessions of six parallel microsymposia one session in the morning and one in the afternoon. The middle of the day will be given over to the poster sessions and lunch, which can be enjoyed simultaneously in the main Exhibition Hall. All in all, delegates can look forward to 32 keynote lectures, 96 microsymposia and over 1,700 poster presentations during the nine day Congress. Would be astronomers have not been forgotten either. The programme will be suspended from 11-11.30am on the morning of 11th August to allow delegates to enjoy (Scottish weather permitting!) the 82% eclipse of the sun, which takes place at 11.16 that morning.
The opening speech of the Congress on the evening of the 4th will be given by Prof. Aaron Klug, president of the Royal Society, who will also chair the first plenary session. The scientific programme commences the following day. The keynote speakers will deliver lectures right across the spectrum of crystallographic science. Space constraints prevent a full listing here, but some of the highlights will include (in alphabetical order):
Elena Boldyreva (Inst. of Solid State Chemistry, Novosibirsk, Russia) "Solid State Reactions" Thursday 5th, p.m.
Jennifer Doudna (U. of Yale, USA) "Crystal Structures of Ribosymes" Wednesday 11th, p.m.
Jack Dunitz (ETH, Zurich) The Bragg Lecture: "Polymorphism The Same yet Different" Saturday 7th, a.m.
Michele Parrinello (Max Planck Inst., Stuttgart, Germany)
"Role and Perspectives of ab initio Molecular Dynamics in Crystallography" Thursday 12th, a.m.
Jim Scott (U. of NSW, Australia) "Crystallographic Aspects of Ferroelectric Memories" Thursday 5th, a.m.
Paul Sigler(U. of Yale, USA) "Chaperonin Assisted Protein Folding: The Final Step in Genetic Expression" Saturday 7th, p.m.
Josh Thomas (U. of Uppsala, Sweden) "Crystallography and the Lithium Ion Battery" Sunday 8th, a.m.
Richard Welberry (ANU Canberra, Australia) The Lonsdale Lecture: "Diffuse Scattering" Saturday 7th, p.m.
The Microsymposia subject areas and array of presenting speakers are no less diverse, giving delegates a huge choice of topics. Titles range from: "Viruses and Viral Protein", "Drug Discovery and Design" and "Hot Macromolecular Structures" in the biological areas to "New Frontiers in High Pressure Crystallography", "Molecular Magnets" and "Nanomaterials" in the field of Industrial and Materials Crystallography. A special emphasis has been placed on the interaction between crystallography and both materials and biological sciences, which will be reflected in the subject content. For example, developments in the role of 'bio-informatics' (where chemical and crystallographic data bases can be harnessed in a wide variety of molecular modelling and interaction applications) will be highlighted. Similarly, exciting developments in high pressure and low temperature crystallography will be presented.
As in previous Congresses, Glasgow 1999 offers delegates the opportunity to display posters of their current research activities. With the deadline for entries now closed, the organisers confirm that over 2,300 abstracts have been received with a record number of poster presentations scheduled for the meeting. Contributions have been received from all corners of the globe, from Bangladesh to Brazil, Chile to China and New Zealand to the Netherlands. Some of the more intriguing poster abstract titles include: "Turkish Ornaments are Twins of Crystals", The Crystal Structure of Adenovirus Knob bound to its Cellular Receptor Car" and "Wood Fibre Diffraction using CCD Detectors in Forest Planting Programs"!
The Congress also incorporates a large commercial exhibition with many of the major companies involved in the production and use of crystallographic software and hardware exhibiting their products and services. Running from 5th 9th of August, the exhibition will feature all the big names in crystallographic technology and instrumentation and will also provide space for a poster area, general seating, eating facilities and an Internet Café from which delegates can read their e-mail. All in all, it should provide a lively and stimulating environment in which to discuss crystallography.
As well as the lecture and poster presentation programme, a number of Open Commission Meetings are scheduled to take place throughout the Congress, paralleling either a microsymposia or poster session. There are also three workshops, which take place on 4th August covering "Structure Factor Phase Determination", "The Cambridge Structural Database" and "Structure Solution from Powder Diffraction Data". For those with some extra time at the beginning or end of the Congress,
