An update for ECA Senior Crystallographers (General Interest Group GIG-02)
August 2024
In terms of activities and meetings this group has been essentially dormant since the Covid pandemic; the last GIG-02 meeting at which any business was conducted was during ECM32 in Vienna in 2019, when the current Officers were elected. There has been only one ECM since then, in 2022. I had the impression the attendance by older crystallographers was understandably quite low except for the former ECA Presidents who came to the special ‘Gold and Silver’ anniversary celebration session and the conference dinner but not the rest of the meeting; a timetabled meeting for GIG-02 was assigned by the conference organisers to a totally inappropriate room serving simultaneously as a noisy poster session and in any case attracted precisely 2 members, so it was abandoned. Intentions to organise a virtual GIG-02 meeting at some stage have unfortunately not come high enough up the priority list, for which I apologise, but there would not have been a great deal on the agenda before now. The three-year term for our Officers has effectively been renewed by default. The regulations of ECA limit the total term of office to 6 years, so we will need a complete new team to emerge from ECM35 in Poznan next year [note added subsequently: this is, in fact, not the case because there was no ECM in 2021; the maximum term of office is not 6 years, but 4 ECMs, so this will expire at ECM36 in 2027]. It would be an enormous pity for this group to stop because we are unable to find people willing to provide support as Officers; ECA rules require us to have at least two, serving as Chair and Co-Chair.
This update is being sent to around 80 recipients. I have garnered the email addresses from various sources. Most were provided by Helen Stoeckli-Evans, who has generously served as GIG-02 Secretary for many years but has now relinquished that post as well as formally being Co-Chair. Others have come from various lists provided by the ECA and from the current (essentially moribund and soon to be replaced) GIG-02 web page, and I have checked them against entries in the IUCr World Directory of Crystallography. In some cases I have two different email addresses and, for the sake of completeness, I am sending copies to both. I suspect several will not be delivered because the addresses are no longer valid and in use.
We are currently without a group Co-chair, Secretary, or Webmaster. If anyone would like to take on one of these roles for the next 12 months on an interim basis until our next election in 2025, please let me know. The other officers currently, without specific posts, are George Ferguson, Ton Spek, and Enrique Gutierrez-Puebla.
During the period since 2019 I have submitted a brief annual report as requested by ECA Council except in 2021 (the 2022 report also covered 2021). I have represented GIG-02 in the planning of programmes for ECM33 and ECM34, and have offered to do so again for ECM35. As part of this planning, the representatives of the three General Interest Groups of ECA (GIG-01 is the Young Crystallographers and GIG-03 is Education in Crystallography) have had numerous online and email discussions to coordinate our proposals for Microsymposia and have drawn up a combined list of proposals with mutual support for both ECM33 and ECM34. A large proportion of these proposals were accepted, so General Interest sessions have been a significant part of these conferences. At ECM33 in Versailles (as for ECM32 in Vienna) they have, to a large extent, proved very popular and have drawn relatively large audiences. A list of relevant ECM34 Microsymposia is given later.
Members of GIG-02, and particularly former ECA Presidents together with Paul Beurskens and myself (co-chairing together with the current President), featured prominently in the celebrations of 25 years of ECA and 50 years of ECMs during ECM33; this well-attended session was sponsored by GIG-02.
After promising it for a long time, ECA have now managed to create a completely new set of SIG and GIG web pages, which are intended to go live later this year [note added subsequently: delayed until 2025]. This gives us an opportunity for a fresh start with useful current information and the sharing of plans. I am hoping to add some basic material as soon as possible and then continue to add to it. If anyone is willing to contribute and help to get this going, whether as a Webmaster (singly or a shared task?) or only on a short-term basis, please let me know! We should be able to offer an interactive forum space for discussion within the group.
ECM34 takes place later this month in Padova, Italy. I will be there, chairing one session and speaking at another (and, I hope, contributing to the ‘Science Slam’ entertainment event). I hope to see a number of GIG-02 members at the meeting. An hour has been set aside on each of three afternoons for SIG and GIG meetings (half a dozen in parallel) and these include GIG-01, GIG-02, and GIG-03 meetings all at different times to promote interactions among these groups. If you’re attending ECM34, please come along to the GIG-02 meeting. For those who are not going to Padova but would welcome an opportunity to discuss topics of interest to Senior Crystallographers, I will be very happy to set up an online Zoom meeting for up to an hour at a convenient time during the week before ECM34, beginning 18 August. If you are interested in taking part (no commitment at this stage), please let me know as soon as possible, with days/times you could be available, and I will see if I can find a time suitable for everyone – or even a choice of a couple of times. I very much hope we can revitalise GIG-02 after the severe negative impact of Covid.
General Interest Microsymposia at ECM34, proposed by GIGs 01, 02 and 03:
M37: How to address questions, doubts and struggles of a young crystallographer
M38: Things we no longer need to know – or do we?
M39: Common mistakes and problems in using black boxes
M41: Approaches and tools for learning crystallography efficiently and avoiding misconceptions
M42: Inclusion – not only in crystals: spotting and overcoming potential obstacles
M43: International School of Crystallography 50th anniversary: memories from the past, present and views for the future
I would be very pleased to hear from any of you in response to this update, for whatever reason: an email address correction, an offer to serve as an Officer or help with the new web page, an indication that you’re coming to ECM34, an expression of interest in an online discussion later this month, an encouragement to keep this group going, a suggestion of someone you think may not be a member but could be,… Over to you: GIG-02 can’t ever be more than what its members make it.
Bill Clegg, GIG-02 Chair; bill.clegg@ncl.ac.uk
