Crystallographers to Meet in California Next Month

James McDonald Stewart

The conference will include a full program of symposia in biological and chemical crystallography, materials science, instrumentation developments, and x-ray and neutron scattering methods, with special symposia in other areas such as crystallization.

Most of the sessions are organized by nine ACA scientific special interest groups that focus on amorphous materials, biological macromolecules, fiber diffraction, materials science, neutron scattering, service crystallography, small-angle scattering, small molecules, and synchrotron radiation. A tenth special interest group focuses on the needs and concerns of young scientists new to the field. An additional general interest group covers topics that do not fall within the special interest categories.

The meeting kicks off on Saturday with workshops on iterative single-wavelength anomalous scattering methods, atomic force microscopy of crystal surfaces, real-space pair distribution function methods, and neutron diffraction studies of macromolecules.

A full schedule of talks, poster sessions, and social events begins Sunday morning. The breadth of topics that will be covered at this year's meeting includes sessions on materials science; instrumentation, including small-angle scattering and area detectors for chemical crystallography; the use of synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction, including neutron scattering studies of gas hydrates, ices, and planetary materials; chemical crystallography, in particular new developments in supramolecular structure and engineering and validation of crystal structures; and various aspects of structural biology, including computational methods, macromolecular complexes, membrane protein structures, and protein kinases, phosphatases, and signaling proteins.

This year's ACA Transactions Symposium, to be held on Tuesday, is entitled "High-Throughput Crystallography." This full-day session will focus on biological macromolecules, a timely topic given the recent announcements about the sequencing of the human genome and the ongoing complementary efforts in structural genomics. The morning session will feature reports on methodology unique to high-throughput crystallography and the afternoon session will focus on reports from structural genomics projects.

Another meeting highlight is the special symposium dedicated to crystallographic activities at NIST, scheduled for a full-day session on Tuesday. One of many events planned as part of the year-long centennial celebration of NIST, these talks--given by scientists from NIST, as well as others--will cover the institute's long history of crystallographic research. Topics will include structural databases, high-pressure crystallography, neutron and x-ray diffraction, proteins, biomaterials, and synchrotron radiation. Another special session entitled "Frontiers in Crystallization" will take place on Wednesday.

The Fankuchen Memorial Award is given every three years to honor an outstanding crystallographer who is known to be an effective teacher. ACA will confer this award on James McDonald Stewart for 2001 at an award and lecture presentation to be held on Tuesday. His "immense lifetime contributions to the development and teaching of computing methodologies have played a major part in the success and prominence that crystallography holds in science," the announcement of the award says. The citation adds that his "educational influence has reached far beyond the conventional classroom." Stewart is a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Poster sessions will be held on Sunday through Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in the Pasadena Room at the hotel. Special preview sessions at lunchtime each of these days will allow selected presenters to summarize their posters in five-minute talks.

The annual banquet and awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday night, beginning at 6:00 pm, in the Crystal Room at the historic Beaux Arts style Regal Biltmore Hotel. Los Angeles Times science writer and author K. C. Cole will receive the Elizabeth A. Wood Science Writing Award for "her book The Universe and the Teacup as well as other contributions toward science literacy among the general public."

The equipment exhibit will be open from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Sunday through Tuesday, and 10:00 am to 3:30 pm on Wednesday. The show will feature more than 20 companies displaying the latest in instrumentation, books, software, and services related to crystallography.

Various social events are scheduled throughout the week. The opening reception will be held at the LA Central Library on Saturday from 7:00 to 10:00 pm. ACA continues its mentor-mentee program, which matches senior scientists with students and postdocs, at a dinner on Sunday evening. The Young Scientists special interest group will hold a mixer on Monday night at 7:30 pm at the Bonaventure Brewing Co. A postmeeting excursion to the Getty Center is also planned; the center, a major cultural and architectural attraction, features an art museum, a cultural center, and an art conservation center.