Executive Committee and Council News
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Istanbul, 17, 18 & 19 August 2008
Participants
The membership of the ECA Executive Committee as appointed in 2006 is:
President: J. R. Helliwell (UK); Vice-President: S. Larsen (Denmark); Secretary: P. Bombicz (Hungary); Treasurer: R. Kuzel (Czech Republic); Immediate Past President: H Fuess (Germany); Members; S. Garcia-Granda (Spain), L. van Meervelt (Belgium); A. Roodt (South Africa) and ECA Educational coordinatator and Webmaster: M. Nespolo (France).
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Agenda
1 Opening
1.1 Welcome to Council and Guests
1.2 Application for membership [none, so far]
1.3 Former e-mail decisions
2 Annual Reports by the President and the Treasurer
2.1 Report by the President J.R. Helliwell
2.2 Report by the Treasurer R. Kuzel
3 Approval by the Council of the submitted accounts
3.1 Report of the Auditors for the financial year of 2008
4 Annual Reports by the Executive Committee
4.1 Report by the Vice-President S. Larsen
4.2 Report by the Past-President H. Fuess also on the Felix Bertaut prize
4.3 Report by the Secretary P. Bombicz on summary of the work of the Executive Committee
4.4 Report by A. Roodt on the Max Perutz prize and poster prizes
4.5 Report by L. van Meervelt on sponsorship of meetings and schools
4.6 Report by S. Garcia-Granda on SIG organisation
4.7 Report by M. Nespolo on the Website related activities
5 Nominations to the election of the new Executive Committee and Representatives of IM-s
6 Reports regarding ECM's
6.1 ECM25 (2009) Istanbul – running the conference E. Kendi
6.2 ECM26 (2010) Darmstadt - progress in organisation H. Fuess
6.3 ECM27 (2012) Bergen - progress in organisation K. Törnroos, Carl-Henrik Görbitz
6.4 ECM28 (2013) presentation of Athens (I. Mavridis, M. Calamiotou) and Warwick (E. Garman)
7 IUCr-ECA link
8 National Crystallographic Associations
8.1 Grouping ECA member and IUCr non-member countries to IUCr Adhering Body
8.2 Observer Countries (Armenia, Belarus, Estonia)
8.3 African and Middle East-East Crystallographic Regions
9 ECA memberships: Enlarging the number of IMs and CAMs of the ECA
Relationship between ECA, the ECM's and the CAM's
10 Annual Reports regarding SIGsf activity
10.1 SIG.1 Macromolecular Crystallography (Keith Wilson)
10.2 SIG.2 Charge, Spin & Momentum Density (Bo Brummerstedt Iversen)
10.3 SIG.3 Aperiodic Crystals (Sander van Smaalen)
10.4 SIG.4 Electron Crystallography (Louisa Meshi)
10.5 SIG.5 Mineral and Inorganic Crystallography (Frédéric Hatert)
10.6 SIG.6 Instrumentation and Experimental Techniques (IET) (Jean-Louis Hodeau)
10.7 SIG.7 Molecular Interaction and Recognition (MIR) (Roland Boese)
10.8 SIG.8 Powder Diffraction (SIGPD) (Jordi Rius)
10.9 SIG.9 Crystallographic Computing (CCSIG) (Ton Spek)
10.10 SIG.10 Diffraction physics and optics (Mikhail Kovalchuk)
10.11 SIG.11 Crystallography under Extreme Conditions (Leonid Dubrovinsky)
10.12 SIG.12 Crystallography of Functional Materials (Helmut Ehrenberg)
10.13 SIG.13 Molecular Structures and Chemical Properties (Fernando J. Lahoz)
11 Establishment of a Committee for Young Crystallographers in the ECA region
12 Progress in the establishment of a€op. Educational Program in Crystallographyby M. Nespolo
13 Vote on the venue of ECM28 (2013)
14 ECA Executive Committee elections for Officers for the period 2009-2012
15 The ECA: what to do - where to go
Discussion regarding rules and future proceedings
[Written contributions from the Councillors as well as from Individual Members are welcome!]
15 Any other business
16 Close
The reports of the members of the Executive Committee and SIG-s' chairs referred to the Minutes were distributed to the members of the Council on 10th July 2009. Other reports can be found in the Appendices of this document.
Opening, Report by the President J.R. Helliwell
1, 2.1 Opening and report of the President, Prof John R. Helliwell
Prof Helliwell opened the Council meeting. He gave an overview of tasks and timing of the Council Meeting, in particular the elections. He referred the Councillors to his Presidential report circulated prior to the Council, which was accepted by the Council. He reviewed the e-mail decisions in the last year. There were no questions to the e-mail decisions.
Prof Helliwell thanked the excellent organization of ECM25 to all contributors, highlighting the inspired work of Prof Engin Kendi (chair), Prof Süheyla Özbey (Organising and Programme Committee) and Prof Semra Ide (Programme Committee).
The leaflet with information on ECA and a form to become a member has been updated by Prof Radomir Kuzel, who was heartily thanked.
A booth for the ECA during the ECM25 Istanbul was arranged advertising the Association and future ECM-s.
Prof Helliwell thanked all who had contributed to the ECA Perutz and Bertaut Prizes with their donations. He highlighted the importance of donations to the ECA in general.
The next ECA Executive Committee eWinter meetingf will be held in February 2010 in Budapest and Councillors are most welcome to suggest agenda items for discussion till the end of January 2010, preferably before Christmas 2009.
Prof Helliwell expressed his hearty thanks to the ECA Executive Committee colleagues, the Auditors, and thanked the Editor of the IUCr Newsletter for publishing ECA reports.
The Council approved the submitted report of the President.
Treasurer report
2.2 Report by the Treasurer R. Kuzel
For different, largely historical, reasons the ECA monies are currently held in several accounts. The history, reasons and current credits are given below.
| Account | Person responsible | Credit |
| Netherlands | Sybolt Harkema | ~ 400€ |
| The account has been created together with the ECA registration in the Netherlands by the ECA Treasurer. It is used to pay fees to the Chamber of Commerce (Euro 25), because the ECA is registered in the Netherlands. | ||
| Germany, Darmstadt | Hartmut Fuess | 22613€ |
| The principal ECA account for collection of ECA Prizes monies. It should have minimal transfers and higher interest rate. | ||
| Czech Republic, Prague | Radomír Kužel | 26 196€ cash 122€ |
| The current€O account of the Czech and Slovak Crystallographic Association. Since 2007 not used for other purposes than for ECA money. This is the working ECA account of the present Treasurer with frequent transfers and low interest rates. It is used for collection of money by bank transfers from IM, NM, CAM and ECA supports. | ||
| Czech Republic, Prague | Radomír Kužel | 209 584 CZK ~ 8 383€ |
| The current CZK account of the Czech and Slovak Crystallographic Association. For ECA, it is currently used only for collection of credit card payments, mainly from IM (individual members), payments with other currency than EUR. | ||
Total amount of ECA money ~ 57 314€.
Expected income from national members if all the NMs will pay including their debts from the past: 3500€. Expected income from the CAMs: 500€. Donations: 500€, Loan from ECM25 to return 23 000€.
Expected costs: Max Perutz prize 7000€, Bertaut prize 2000 EUR, Refunds of ECM25th Ceremonial participant Prof Dr Authier (2000€?).
Transfers since IUCr in Osaka
Transfers in the Prague€ account (August 2008 – August 2009)
Credit:
From National members 2 745€
From Individual members 2363€
From Corporate members 10 415€ (sponsorship 3500)
Bank transactions (- interest) - 116 EUR
Total 15639€
Debit:
Loan to ECM 25 (loan for organisation and support for travels)
25000€
Support of Bilbao school 1250€
High pressure crystallography – Erice, Italy
1500€
The role of symmetries in condensed matter - Giens, France
750€
Support of XX International School on Physics and Chemistry
of Condensed Matter, Bialowieza, Poland 500€
Structural Analysis Using Single-crystal X-ray Diffraction
750€
Nancy, France
Support of ECM 25 (no transaction, reduced loan to 23 000) [2 000€]
Bank transactions 360€
Total 30110€
Difference - 14 471€
Transfers in the Prague CZK account (till the end of August 2009)
Credit:
From Individual members 148572 CZK 5 943€
From Corporate members 44691 CZK 1 788€
Bank transactions (- interest) - 105€
Total 7836€
Debit:
ECA leaflets 10 680 CZK 427€
ECA meeting in Osaka, room 3 840 CZK 154€
IUCr fee for regional com. (Alger, Latv, Moroc, Tunis, Turk and
Ukraine) 36 691 CZK 1 467€
ECA leaflets 2009 (print, mail) 14 255 CZK 570€
Total 2 618 EUR
Difference 5 218€
Cash transactions in€ account (August 2008 – August 2009)
Credit:
From National members 400€
From Individual members 210€
From Corporate members 250€
Donations (Helliwell) 190€
Total 1050€
Debit:
Meeting of Executive Committee in Budapest
558.35€
| coffee | 35.15 | |
| accommodation | 426 | |
| catering | 97.2 |
Authier gift 70€
SIG 6 poster prize 100€
SIG 8 poster prize 200€
Total 928.35€
Difference 121.65€
Prof Radomir Kuzel had updated the ECA leaflet with information on: membership, benefits of membership, National Members, Special Interest Groups, last and future ECM-s, meetings supported by ECA in 2009 and ECA prizes. The brochure includes an Application form also to become an Individual or Corporate Member of ECA. Several reminders were sent to all former IMs about the renewal of their membership fees (301 IMs paid for 2009 up until 16th Aug 2009). Appearance of the logo of the Corporate Affiliate Members of the ECA on the back cover of the leaflet encouraged several firms to become a corporate member, thus the number of CAM-s increased to 27. It had a positive influence on the financial situation of ECA. Four Exhibitors were not CAMs at ECM25.
A tick box was added to the ECM registration page for an e.g. 5€o contribution of an ECM participant towards the Perutz and Bertaut Prizes, it will be so thereafter at all future ECMS. ECM registrants are directed to the ECA membership fees collection page to check their membership or to become a member. There is now an advertised opportunity for donation to the ECA via the ECA individual membership registration system and also in the new ECA Leaflet. Donations can also be an annual or a five years donation as desired by the Donor.
Prof John R Helliwell remarked on the risk of functioning with the present low budget comparing the ~ 70.000€ assets of the ECA to the ~200 000 GBP assets of the BCA.
The Council approved the submitted report of the Treasurer.
Report of the Auditors
3 Approval by the Council of the submitted accounts
3.1 Report of the Auditors for the financial year of 2008
Report on the financial status of the ECA in 2009
Auditors: Jindřich Hašek, CZ
Elspeth Garman, UK
R. Kužel (ECA Treasurer) submitted a report on the overall status of the accounts by June 30, 2009 and also gave estimates of the expected credits and debits till the end of 2009.
Present state of the four ECA accounts in three different countries (Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands).
Account at Ceska sporitelna in Prague which accepts money transfers in€
IBAN: CZ84 0800 0000 0015 6339 9283
Responsible person: R. Kuzel
Total sum 20 579€
Account at Ceska sporitelna in Prague which accepts credit card payments
IBAN: CZ84 0800 0000 0001 6290 0319
Currency CZK. Responsible person: R. Kuzel
Total sum (depends on rate CZK/EUR) ~7 500€
Account in Dortmund – EUR deposit account (1 year deposit, expire November)
IBAN: DE59 508 700 050 0280222 05
Responsible person: H. Fuss
Total sum 23 279€
Account in Nijmegen - in country of the ECA registration
ABN-AMRO priverekening 502707097
Responsible person: S. Harkema
Total sum 439€
Total sum ~ 51 797€
The main accounts for money transfers in Prague (R. Kuzel) were checked against the primary documents and the bank records. All transactions realized were agreed and signed by the President of ECA (Prof. Helliwell). The accounts in other countries [Holland (S. Harkema), Germany (H. Fuess)] were agreed based on e-mail correspondence.
The total amount deposited on the ECA accounts decreased from ~59 200€ in June 2008 to ~52 800€ in June 2009. The red numbers, i.e. minus 6,400€ is only virtual and is caused mainly by the loan of 23,000€ to the Organizing Committee of the ECM in Istanbul.
The ECA is registered as a Dutch Society at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and pays a small yearly fee for that from the ABN-AMRO account. As a Society without any commercial activity it has no VAT number and has no obligation to pay any tax. The ECA registration will be renewed this autumn (Kamer van Koophandel, Prins Hendrikstraat 2, 6521 AW Nijmegen, The Netherlands) for the next three years.
CONCLUSION
Both Auditors authorized the Treasurerfs report and approved all transactions performed in the period August 2008 – July 2009.
FINANCIAL BALANCE. Estimate of revenues for the next year
Membership fees (tax duty free) national fees ~ 4 000
corporate fees ~ 8 000
individual fees ~ 1 500
total ~13 500 EUR
Expected revenue from the ECM organization from – 2000 to +10 000€
N.B. Some financial risk out of control of the ECA is connected with the ECM organization.
An extent of this "insurance" is not declared in any official text known to auditors.
Corporate donations directed for support of special actions during the ECM
Actually, it is not income of ECA ~ 4 000 €
Analysis of individual components:
Revenues:
National membership
Stable source of income – no comments
Corporate membership
Stable source of income – no comments
Individual membership
Very ineffective collection of money. For 200 members ECA collects 2 000€ per year (EUR 10 for individual membership), and we lose by discounting the ECM fee minus 4000€ in the ECM conference budget (20€ per member per ECM discount). Moreover, we lose bank transfer charges and have a lot of effort to administer this. Similar figures are for 5 year individual memberships.
However, it is now a well established practice and it is necessary to continue it.
Specific support of commercial sponsors to special activities during the ECM
This area does not give income to the ECA, but it is a very efficient tool for rewarding the best scientific results and also to encourage and support young scientists in specific areas of interest.
Recommendation of Auditors:
Commercial lectures during the ECM lunch time – fully supported
Student competitions in particular scientific subjects – fully supported
Commercial support of awards for outstanding scientists should be considered carefully.
Visible advertisement by sponsors on these occasions is very undesirable.
Income from the ECA conference
Income from their own conferences is one of the principal sources of money for many organizations (Protein Society, ICCD, ACA, etc.). ECA has no clear position concerning the revenues from the ECM.
In the last years the income varied from income 16,000 to the loss of several thousands€. Reliable analysis why some meetings are much more successful than others is practically impossible because of too many specific factors involved, the local languages used in documents, etc.
A small increase in the ECM fee by 5 % (i.e. 20€ per participant which would go to the ECA) would lead to the stable increase of the ECA revenue by 10 000 (16 000)€ a year for 500 (800) ECM participants respectively.
Recommendation of the auditors:
The Agreement between the ECA Executive Committee and the local Organization responsible for the ECA Meeting should contain a clear statement about the revenues to be paid to the ECA organization.
Scenario 1. One of the scenarios is a royalty of 20€ per paying ECM participant being paid to the ECA. Of course, it cannot be applied for individual members of ECA because they currently get a 20€ deduction from the registration fee – we are collecting 10€ minus bank charges into the main ECA accounts instead and the advantage for individual members should be preserved
Scenario 2. A much better scenario is that the ECA Treasurer collects the ECM conference and exhibition fees. The system could be the following (for example):
The local Organizing Committee prepares all principle Agreements between the local service organizations and the ECA (conference and exhibition rooms, serving organizations, etc) co-signed by the local organizing committee.
After the signature of these Agreement, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) receives a negotiated sum from the ECA (e.g. 20,000€) as a nonrepayable subsidy for covering small expenditures and rewards for local organizing staff, etc.
ECA Treasurer pays all the signed obligations according to the Agreements
Travel expenses, meals and accommodation are handled by local bodies only (LOC or local companies contracted by LOC, etc.)
The LOC will also negotiate any changes with the ECA Executive Committee
The local organization will receive an additional financial premium according to the conference success.
The scenario 2 has the following advantages:
Gives the ECA full control over all the risky items in the ECM budget.
Simplifies the procedure of collecting the fees from participants
Increases the number of individual members, who can pay the ECA membership together with ECM fee
Multiplies the standing ECA revenues per year or may decrease participantsf fees
The procedure of handling the participantsf personal data in one place increases security
The effort of the ECA Executive connected with this procedure is not high. The Treasurer is already currently collecting the individual memberships so that the procedure remains the same, only the number of transfers should increase. It is important also that one of the standing members of the Executive should be responsible for supervising the operations and negotiate possible changes with local organizers if there are any problems.
Expenses:
Awards for outstanding scientific work
Parallel awards in different fields of crystallography are possible only if the ECA yearly revenues can increase.
Awards to young scientists
The Auditors recommend the distribution of more awards to students and young scientists from presentations at the ECM – best lectures (or the first authors on posters). Possibly one award per one or two clustered microsymposia. Generally the honour coming with the award and diploma are much more important than the money sum obtained, so that awarding many diplomas need not be a financial burden.
ECA donations to other conferences
Although this is a well established practice in many organizations, the Auditors have no opportunity to check anything what happens to these monies.
Recommendation of Auditors:
Transfer of money should be accompanied by a standard signed Agreement with an obligation for the conference organizer to send a short report with a budget, a list of the other sponsors, and in the case of the ECA money being distributed to individual participants, the names of those recipients. The names of recipients of ECA grants should be publicly accessible (a well established practice of the ACA).
Payment of debts of some organizations with respect to a third party(e.g. payment of membership fee to IUCr for some countries).
Recommendation of Auditors: Auditors consider this practice non-transparent. A country is not a juridical person. Thus, the recipients of the ECA donation were in fact the National Committees of the IUCr, and this debt should solved by the IUCr not by the ECA. A remission of inner ECA national fees in the case of the insolvency of some countries is quite transparent with respect to the handling of public finances, and should be used as a vehicle to support that country instead of paying their IUCr fees.
Important documents should be openly available on the WWW site
Auditors also recommend that the approved documents setting out the financial arrangements for a country to run an ECM meeting and also other important documents should be openly available on the WWW site.
In the oral presentation of the Auditors given by Prof Elspeth Garman they proposed that every ECM attendee should be an ECA member. In his reply to the report of the Auditors Prof JR Helliwell stated that the Auditorsf recommendations including an analysis of the risks of the ECM-s would be made at the next winter Executive Committee Meeting. The fluctuation of the numbers of IM-s should be decreased. It is pleasant that the ECM-s are exceedingly popular.
The Council approved the submitted report of the Auditors, thereby approving the Executive Committeefs discharge of their responsibilities and actions with respect to the submitted accounts.
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Report of the Vice-President S. Larsen
4 Annual Reports by the Executive Committee and preliminary progress reports
4.1 Report by the Vice-President S. Larsen
The Council approved the submitted report of the Vice-President.
Felix Bertaut Prize
4.2 Report by the Past-President H. Fuess on the Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut prize
The wording of the description of the Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut prize was reconciled with the€opean Crystallographic Association (ECA) and the€opean Neutron Scattering Association (ENSA) in order to include it in the By-Laws of ECA.
The Prize Committee set up by the two Associations had decided unanimously to award the Lewy-Bertaut prize, second edition 2009, to Dr. Lukáš Palatinus who gave his Prize Lecture during the ECM25th anniversary celebration in Istanbul. Prior to the Bertaut Prize lecture Prof Hartmut Fuess gave a nice presentation on Felix Bertaut and the Prize. Prof Jean-Luis Hodeau prepared a poster on Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut. The next Bertaut Prize will be awarded in Darmstadt 2010 during ECM26. Proposals are welcome and the deadline is set at February 28th 2010.
ECA covered the registration fee (370€) of Dr. Lukáš Palatinus to attend ECM25.
The Council approved the submitted report of the Past-President.
Report by the Secretary P. Bombicz
4.3 Report by the Secretary P. Bombicz on summary of the work of the Executive Committee
The Council approved the submitted report of the Secretary.
Max Perutz and Poster Prizes
4.4 Report by A. Roodt on the Poster Prizes and Max Perutz Prize
Prof Andreas Roodt extended orally his written report with the information about the twelve Poster Prizes at the ECM25. There is a need of formalising the Poster Prizes. He expressed that there was an increasing difficulty to find members for all these Juries.
The Council approved the submitted report of Prof Andreas Roodt.
Post Meeting news:
Announcement re the ECA 4th Max Perutz Prize Award
It is with regret that it is announced that Dr Lynne McCusker (Laboratory of Crystallography at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland.) has decided not to accept the 4th Max Perutz Prize after all. Extended discussions with Dr McCusker to reconsider her decision have not been successful. In her correspondence to me as Chair of the Prize Selection Committee Lynne stated the situation in essence as follows:-
"Unfortunately, when I accepted the Prize initially and discussed the wording for the website and for the certificate, I had not realized just how one-sided the recognition would be. That only became apparent to me in Istanbul, and I reacted immediately thereafter. I am very sorry to hear that the Max Perutz Prize Committee and the ECA Executive Committee do not deem it possible to include Christian [Bärlocher]* as a co-recipient of the Prize or even to change the wording on the website to give credit more appropriately. If indeed the Max Perutz Prize Committee was under the impression that I am the leader of our team, they were mistaken (there just isn't one), and it seems then that the final decision was made on the basis of incorrect information."
*Christian = Dr Christian Bärlocher
Overall the implication is that there is therefore no final prize winner for the 4th Max Perutz Prize as announced previously and awarded for 2009 in Istanbul at ECM25. The Executive Committee of ECA regrets Dr. McCusker's decision, but accepts her explanatory statement.
Prof Andreas Roodt, Chairman of the Max Perutz Prize Selection Committee
From the ECA President
The Perutz Prize Selection Committee is an independently convened group that works in confidence to discuss candidacies for the Perutz Prize Award. The Selection Committee is chaired by a Member of the ECA Executive Committee but which then monitors due process through general reports from the Chairman but in no way is involved in the details of the deliberations or conclusions on the individual candidacies of the Selection Committee. The ECA Executive Committee confirms that due process was followed at all steps by the 4th Award Selection Committee in making this Award. Specifically I mention that after the 4th Perutz Prizewinner was identified, the then ECA President, Prof John R Helliwell informed Dr McCusker in June 2009, and discussed with her by telephone and then email the draft quote for the ECA website that he had received from the Selection Committee Chairman, modified it with her consent, and it was then published as such. After approximately one month, in July 2009, the Selection Committee Chairman contacted Dr McCusker again to discuss a shorter version of the quote to be put on the Prize certificate, with her input. No objection was received from Dr McCusker to awarding the prize as published publicly on the ECA website and announced elsewhere for this nearly 2 months period; this only happened after the Prize was awarded. The difficulties faced by Dr McCusker were raised by her with Prof John R Helliwell by email after ECM25, who was by then out of contact on holiday. The two Committees involved carefully deliberated the matters raised through September 2009. Dialogue with Dr McCusker was then undertaken by the Chairman of the Selection Committee in consultation with the Selection Committee. The ECA Executive Committee confirms that all due care and attention had been exercised by the Selection Committee and Officers involved in the process leading up to the Award itself. The request to make the Prize a two persons team was deemed inappropriate as the Prize conditions do not invite team nominations of 2, 3 or 4 etc persons. Thus the decision of the ECA Executive Committee was that a retrospective decision to alter from a single person awardee to a two-persons award would have potentially discriminated against efforts involving other teams who might have been nominated if that had been announced in the first place.
The Executive Committee of ECA regrets Dr. McCusker's decision, but accepts her explanatory statement.
To be clear:- The Perutz Prize is awarded in recognition of meritorious achievements in any branch of crystallography by a crystallographer having a clear affiliation with the ECA region. It can be for leadership or scientific contributions or both. Where an Awardee's research is in collaboration, the credits to the team or to particularly relevant partnerships are naturally expected to be acknowledged by the Awardee and thereby to be specifically requested in the formal announcement drafting step.
The call for Nominations for the 5th Perutz Prize Award has a closing date of February 28th 2010. The 5th Awardee will present his or her Lecture at ECM26 in Darmstadt, Germany.
Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda, President of the ECA
Sponsorship of meetings and schools
4.5 Report by L. van Meervelt on sponsorship of meetings and schools
Prof Luc van Meervelt reported there was no change in the guidelines for financial support since it was decided in Osaka. The two deadlines (1st of August and February) and the requirement of application at least 6 months before the event proved to be efficient. The attention was drawn to respect the black-out periods around ECM-s or IUCr Congresses (nb in the Congress year ECA still funds bursary applications obviously) which must be followed. Dates of the schools, workshops and conferences, as well as annual meetings of the national Associations should be collected and announced in the ECANews webpage in order to avoid clashing. Councillors should let the Executive Committee know about dates of all meetings.
Reports on the Conferences and workshops supported by ECA are put on the ECANews website. Three applications have already been received for events to be held in 2010.
The Council approved the submitted report of Prof Luc van Meervelt.
Sponsorship of Schools and Workshops by the ECA
============================== 2009 ==============================
Name of event: Crystallography on line:
International school on the use and applications of the Bilbao Crystallographic Server
Topic: General crystallography
Venue: Lekeito, Spain
Dates: 21 June – 27 June, 2009
Organizer: Prof. Mois Aroyo
Amount granted: 1250 €
Name of event: The role of symmetries in condensed matter
Topic: condensed matter
Venue: Giens peninsula, France
Dates: 11-18 May, 2009
Organizer: Dr. Virginie Simonet
Amount granted: 750 €
Name of event: High Pressure Crystallography: from novel experimental approaches to
cutting-edge technologies
Topic: high pressure crystallography
Venue: Erice, Italy
Dates: 4-14 June 2009
Organizer: Prof. Paola Spadon
Amount granted: 1500 €
Name of event: 4th
Crystallographic School Structural Analysis using single-crystal X-ray diffraction
Topic: small molecule crystallography
Venue: Nancy, France
Dates: 22 – 26 September 2009
Organizer: Prof. Enrique Espinosa
Amount granted: 750 € (dedicated to Maghreb region, in
French)
Name of event: ECM25
Topic: general crystallography
Venue: Istanbul, Turkey
Dates: 16-21 August, 2009
Organizer: Prof Engin Kendi
Amount granted: 2000 €
Name of event: XX International School on Physics and Chemistry
of Condensed Matter
Topic: structural investigation of functional
materials
Venue: Bialowieza, Poland
Dates: 4 - 11 July, 2009
Organizer: Prof. Eugeniusz Zukowski
Amount granted: 1000 € (500 € extra versus
2008)
Total 7250€
============================== 2010 ==============================
Name of event: Summer school on mathematical
crystallography
Topic: Mathematical Crystallography
Venue: Nancy, France
Dates: 21 June – 2 July, 2010
Organizer: Prof Massimo Nespolo
Amount granted: 1500 €
Name of event: International Symposium of Diffraction Structural Biology ISDSB 2010
Topic: Structural Biology
Venue: Paris, France
Dates: 25-28 May, 2010
Organizer: Prof John R. Helliwell
Amount granted: 1000 €
Name of event: Structure and Function from Macromolecular Crystallography: Organisation in Space and Time
Topic: Macromolecular Crystallography
Venue: Erice, Italy
Dates: 3-13 June, 2010
Organizer: Prof Paola Spadon
Amount granted: 1500 €
SIG standardization
4.6 Report by S. Garcia-Granda on SIG organisation
The Executive Committee had invited the representatives of the SIG-s for a discussion with the aim of strengthening the communication with the SIG-s. The representatives of SIG5 Prof Giovanni Ferraris, SIG6 Prof Emmanuel Saridikis, SIG7 Prof Roland Boese, SIG8 Prof Radek Kuzel, SIG12 Prof Helmut Ehrenberg and SIG13 Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda were able to attend the meeting in the early afternoon of 16th August 2009.
The tabled monitoring of the performance was up-dated and refined for 2008 and the 2005-2008 period:
The importance of the cooperation of the SIGs within the Focus Areas was highlighted, especially in the organisation of the Scientific Program of the ECM-s.
The Council approved the submitted report of Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda.
Website related activities by M. Nespolo
4.7 Report by M. Nespolo on Website related activities
The number of SIG-s having own website is increasing, although there are several SIG-s which do not have an active website. SIG websites / mailing lists:
SIG #2 Charge, Spin & Momentum Density
SIG #4 Electron Crystallography
SIG #5 Mineral and Inorganic Crystallography ----- SIG #5 mailing list
SIG #8 Powder Diffraction (EPDIC)
SIG #13 Molecular Structure and Chemical Properties
The importance of setting up and administering SIG websites and mailing lists was highlighted, and the guidelines are placed on the ECANews site: http://www.ecanews.org/sig_info.php.
Prof. Massimo Nespolo had repeatedly invited all Councillors to inform him about all national schools and meetings so as to include them on the ECANews website. National Associationsf websites are linked from ECANews. There are uniform SIG and ECM domain names: sigXX.ecanews.org, ecmxx.ecanews.org.
If the SIG Chairfs or officerfs institutions cannot host the SIG website there is a possibility to host the SIG website at the ECANEWS server. However, organisation of the website is the responsibility of the SIG. All future ECM organisers are requested to first contact the ECA Webmaster to have the standardised web address before opening the meeting website.
The Council approved the submitted report of Prof Massimo Nespolo.
ECA EC election
5 Nominations to the election of the new Executive Committee
The Council Ratified (no objection):
The Executive Committee is extended with the position of Educational Coordinator.
On the 20th May the President, Prof John R Helliwell, had informed the Councillors that the ECA Executive Committee had converged on their recommended candidates, and who each had accepted the nomination:
Candidate for the President of ECA: Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda (Spain; Focus Areas 4 and 5)
Candidate for the Vice-President of ECA: Prof Andreas Roodt (South Africa; Focus Area 4)
Candidate for the Secretary of ECA: Dr Petra Bombicz* (Hungary; Focus Area 4)
Candidate for the Treasurer of ECA: Prof Radomir Kuzel* (Czech; Focus Areas 3 and 5)
Candidate for the Officer of ECA: Prof Luc van Meervelt* (Belgium; Focus Area 1)
Candidate for the Officer of ECA: Prof Ullrich Pietsch (Germany; Focus Areas 3 and 5)
Candidate for the Education Coordinator of ECA: Prof Massimo Nespolo (France; Focus Areas 2 and 4)
* may be re-elected
As the (upcoming) Past-President John R Helliwell continues on the Executive Committee for a further 3 years ie as per Statute 10.4.
Nominations received from the Councillors for the third Officer vacancy:
Prof Wulf Depmeier for Officer vacancy as above (6 nominating Councillors)
Prof Alessia Bacchi for Officer vacancy as above (5 nominating Councillors).
The candidate for the President of ECA, Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda, presented his programme:
The idea is to continue the same line of work of this Executive Committee, after three years of experience, we will follow a similar schedule for the next three years, with most of the colleagues and some fresh and enthusiastic new members:
Keep healthy the economy of the association.
Teaching Crystallography throughout€ope.
Improve the SIGsf organization and autonomy.
Enhance the Focus Area Concept.
Strength the links with other associations of the IUCr and Regional and National Associations.
Increase the number of IM-s.
Increase the number of CAM-s.
Develop the new category of GIG – General Interest Groups- Young Crystallographers and others.
Help crystallography in the less developed countries, Africa, East-Europe, West-Asia, Middle-East and also Latin-America.
Keep the organization as simple as possible, out of unnecessary bureaucracy.
Strength the links with the EPDIC.
Consolidate, organize and keep safe the Archive of ECA.
Strength the contact with the Council members and give all relevance to the different Categories of Membership – IM, NM, CAMs.
Give a major role to the young crystallographers.
Create new General Interest Groups for transversal activities like, Teaching, Young, Society, experienced (mature) crystallographers, etcetera.
We have to continue working in the same direction and with the same energy to improve the ECA influence and visibility in the world.
The candidate for the Vice-President, Prof Andreas Roodt, focussed his comments that amongst all eroutine businessf that will obviously come up his special attention would be to the crystallography in Africa and to the map of crystallography in the ECA region.
The candidates for the Treasurer, Prof Radomir Kuzel, and for the Secretary, Dr Petra Bombicz, as well as the candidate for the Education Coordinator, Prof Massimo Nespolo, offered continuity in the work of the Executive Committee. The candidate for one of the Officers, Prof Luc van Meervelt, described the effort of Belgian crystallographers to support crystallography in Africa. The three candidates for the two positions of Officers, Profs Alessia Bacchi, Ullrich Pietsch and Wulf Depmeier, reported their previous experiences, which make them suitable to work for the ECA EC and the crystallographic community.
Reports regarding ECM-s
6 Reports regarding ECM-s
ECM25 (2009) Istanbul
6.1 ECM25 (2009) Istanbul – running the conference E. Kendi
A preliminary report on the running conference was given by Prof Engin Kendi, Chair of ECM25.
89 participants were granted Bursaries by the financial supporters, namely: IUCr, ECA, TCA, TUBITAK, SESAME and OPCW. Local supporters of the Meeting were Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Republic of Turkey-Prime Ministry Promotion Fund, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul and Turkish Atomic Energy Agency. The lunch boxes were provided free of charge to the ECM25 participants by the Prime Ministry Promotion Fund.
The registration numbers: Participants 810; including:- Students 186, Turkish Participants 69, Accompanying Persons 76, Exhibitors 70. 395 of the participants were non-ECA members; 10 EUR for each non-ECA member registrant to go from ECM25 to ECA.
The scientific programme in numbers:
| Name of the Focus Area | Oral present. No | Oral present. % | Micro-symposia No | Micro-symposia % | Poster present. No | Posters present. % | |
| FA 1 | Biological and Macromolecular Crystallography | 67 | 28.4 | 13 | 28.9 | 103 | 21.4 |
| FA 2 | Materials and Minerals | 55 | 23.3 | 10 | 22.2 | 102 | 21.2 |
| FA 3 | Physical Including Fundamental Crystallography | 19 | 8.0 | 4 | 8.9 | 22 | 4.6 |
| FA 4 | Chemical Crystallography | 59 | 25.0 | 12 | 26.7 | 192 | 39.8 |
| FA 5 | Experimental and Computational Techniques | 36 | 16.3 | 6 | 13.3 | 63 | 13.0 |
| S | 236 | 100 | 45 | 100 | 482 | 100 |
Post Meeting News:
The ECM26 was very successful in science, social activities and also in finances.
ECM25 organisers are able to transfer 37.295€ to ECA:
25.000€ loan of ECA to ECM25 prior the Meeting (23.000€ loan + 2.000€ travel support)
4.405€ donations for the ECA prizes (83x5+2x20€)
and surcharges of ECA non-member participants (395x10€o)
7.890€ surplus.
ECM26 (2010) Darmstadt
6.2 ECM26 (2010) Darmstadt - progress in organisation H. Fuess
Prof Hartmut Fuess, chair of ECM26, gave an encouraging introduction about the forthcoming Meeting. The 26th European Crystallographic Meeting will take place between 29 August and 2 September 2010 in the Darmstadtium Conference Centre, Darmstadt, Germany (www.ecm26.org).
Programme Committee: Hartmut Fuess, Roland Boese, Ladislav Bohaty, Bo Brummerstedt Iversen, Alessandra Crispini, Leonid Dubrovinsky, Helmut Ehrenberg, Santiago Garcia-Granda, Chris Gilmore, Frédéric Hatert, Udo Heinemann, John Richard Helliwell, Jean-Louis Hodeau, Engin Kendi, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Louisa Meshi, Gerd Meyer, David Rafaja, Andreas Roodt, Jordi Ruis, Sander van Smaalen, Ton Spek and Keith Wilson. Conference Organisation: www.conventus.de.
Abstracts are invited in all five Focus Areas. Abstract are accepted submitted on-line only. The site will be open from 1st December 2009, abstract submission deadline is 9th April 2010.
The town is easy to reach by any kind of transportation, plain, train or car. The venue: the Congress hall of 1,300 m² with up to 1,630 seats in rows (can be divided into two or three individual rooms). There are 18 conference and seminar rooms varying in size, all with daylight lighting. The foyer area is approximately 1,800 m², most of which can be used for exhibition and display purposes. The total area is 18,000 m².
Accommodation. For the period of the conference 330 rooms have been reserved at special rates. The price for an overnight stay is from 40 – 160€. Overview of the hotels where a block-booking has been made for ECM26: Maritim Konferenzhotel (50 rooms), Maritim Rhein Main (50 rooms), Ramada (40 rooms), Welcome Hotel (50 rooms), Best Western (20 rooms), Telekom Tagungshotel (60 rooms), Ibis Hotel (20 rooms) and Etap Hotel (40 rooms). The Gala dinner will take place in Jagdschloss Kranichstein. A short introduction was given on the DarmstadtLs surrounding area.
The 12th€opean Powder Diffraction Conference will be prior to and overlap for 1 day with ECM26. The EPDIC meeting (www.epdic12.org) will run between 27-30 August 2010 in the same venue. There is overlap in the programme committees of the two events, the Chair is the same (Prof Fuess). Two satellite meetings are confirmed by now. The MaThCryst Satellite Conference before and High Pressure Satellite Conference will take place after the ECM26.
Prof Hartmut Fuess stated that the conference fee of ECM26 will not be higher than the fee of ECM25 was in Istanbul. There will be a discount for those who attend both ECM and EPDIC meetings.
Dr Frank van Meurs asked about the Exhibition. Prof Hartmut Fuess assured the Exhibitors that there will be an agreement on the prices. Prof John R Helliwell explained that Exhibitors are part of ECA and ECM-s, and the Commercial Exhibition is an important and integral part of the Meetings. Prof Hartmut Fuess explained that there will be a joint Exhibition, from Friday to Thursday, all seven conference days. To the question of Dr Frank van Meurs Prof Hartmut Fuess answered that companies who are interested in only one of the meetings may move during the night only. Details will be arranged later.
ECM27 (2012) Bergen
6.3 ECM27 (2012) Bergen - progress in organisation K. Törnroos, Carl-Henrik Görbitz
Prof Karl Törnroos, gave an introduction to the present state of organization of ECM27 takes place between 6 and 10 August 2012 in Bergen. The Local Organizing Committee: Prof. Karl Wilhelm Törnroos (Chair), Prof. Carl Henrik Görbitz (Co-chair), Prof. Helmer Fjellvåg, Prof. Berit Fjærtoft, Prof. Jorunn Sletten, Prof. Leif Sæthre and Dr. Magnus H. Sørby.
The Conference Venue is the Grieg Hall, within walking distance from any part of the town. The main plenary hall capacity is 1500 seats; the secondary and third halls seat 750 and 550 pax. There are three more rooms seating between 100 and 160 pax. There are also five meeting rooms seating between 25 and 80 pax. The exhibition hall covers up to 3500 m2. The Conference Organizer requires 39€ per person plus 25% VAT, while the venue charges 68€ plus 25% VAT per person including a small lunch box, for 600 participants or more.
The aim is that the registration fee will not be more than 400 EUR. Prof John R Helliwell highlighted the risk: the higher the registration fee is, the risk is that the number of participants may become lower.
Transportation to Bergen by air, ferries and rail was presented. The hotel capacity in Bergen is 33 hotels with approx. 4,100 rooms and 8,000 beds. Other accommodation such as youth hostel, guest-houses and private accommodation are also available. Hotel prices from € 70-260. Student accommodation is from € 25. The Norwegian Fjords are on the UNESCOfs World Heritage List. There are various nature based activities within one hours drive.
ECM28 (2013) Athens
6.4 ECM28 (2013) bid presentations
Prof John Helliwell opened the item and declared a conflict of interest as he was from UK and one of the bids was from UK. Thus Prof Sine Larsen as Vice-President of the ECA took the chair.
6.4.1 Athens (I. M. Mavridis, M. Calamiotou)
Prof Irene Mavridis presented the bid of Athens. The Hellenic Crystallographic Association (HeCrA) was founded in 2001. Today crystallographic research groups are present in almost all major universities and research institutions in Greece. HeCrA has more than 70 members, six honorary members and several post-graduate members (http://www.hecra). HeCrA organises conferences every two years with participation of invited international speakers (the 5th conference will take place in 2010) and training workshops. It aims to promote Crystallography in Greece and to raise scientific, public and political awareness of crystallography and structural analysis, their possibilities and applications. The suggested date of the Meeting, the first ECM in Greece, would be between 26th and 30th of August, 2013. Two options are available for the venue: either the Hotel Athenaeum Intercontinental Athens (2 km from the city center, which includes the largest hall in Athens and many smaller ones, providing flexibility of choice) or Divani Caravel Hotel (in the heart of Athens, 4,000 m2 of meeting space, accommodating up to 2000 people). The Local Organising Committee: Profs Maria Calamiotou, Athanassios Hountas, Demetrios Leonidas, Irene M. Mavridis, Nikos Papandreou and Konstantinos Poulas. The Professional Congress Organiser is ROTA Ltd.
The advantages of Athens as venue of ECM28 are the use of€, the city is connected with several countries by international flights, public transportation is well developed, the cuisine is tasteful, the cultural heritage is extremely rich, the nature and sites are extraordinary.
| Early Bird reg. fee: Prior to April 15th, 2013 | Regular reg. fee: After April 15th, 2013 | |
| ECA member | € 430-480 | € 500-550 |
| Non-member | € 450-500 | € 520-570 |
| Student | €200 | €250 |
| Accompanying guest | €150 | €150 |
Respective ECM28 Congress Registration Fees will cover:
ECA member, non-ECA member: all scientific sessions, access to Exhibition and poster area, coffee breaks, opening ceremony & the welcome party, gala dinner
Student: all above excl. gala dinner (available for an additional fee of € 50)
Accompanying guest: Participation to the opening ceremony, the welcome party and the gala dinner (an additional fee of € 20)
Profs Fernando Lahoz, Carlo Mealli and Andreas Roodt highlighted the need of cheap accommodations with reliable public transportation also, for students and other participants. Prof Massimo Nespolo asked about air conditioning in the hot August climate. To the question of Prof Ullrich Pietsch it was stated that the Greek Crystallographic Association has 80 members.
ECM28 (2013) Warwick
6.4.2 ECM28 (2013) bid presentation of Warwick (E. Garman)
Prof Elspeth Garman presented the bid of UK for the ECM28 Meeting in 2013 in the period of 25-29 August 2013. Prof Sandy Blake, Dr Georgina Rosair, Dr Susanne Huth and Ms Gill Moore (Northern Networking Events Ltd.) were involved in the presentation. UK has a long and honourable tradition in the field of crystallography. There was one ECM earlier held in the UK (Oxford) in 1977. Coincidentally, summer 2013 is also the centenary of the first crystal structure being solved by the Braggs in the UK.
Local Organising Committee: Dr David R. Allan, Prof Alexander J. Blake (chair), Prof Vilmos Fülöp, Prof Elspeth Garman (BCA President), Dr Susanne L. Huth (BCA Young Crystallographers Group Chair), Dr Anne M. Kavanagh (Industrial), Dr Harry R. Powell (BCA Treasurer), Prof Paul R. Raithby, Prof Pamela A. Thomas, Prof Chick C. Wilson and Mrs Gill Moore (Conference Organiser).
Warwick University is located in the centre of England with air links directly from Birmingham airport and direct rail links from London. Warwick University is a modern 700 acre campus. The venue for the conference itself is the centrally located Arts Centre. The complete centre is booked for exclusive use for the ECM which offers lecture theatres, with the main lecture theatre providing seating for 1,200 delegates; an exhibition and a poster area, and various lecture rooms with capacities of up to 550, committee rooms, speakers preview room and pleasant and relaxed surroundings for social gatherings. As this is a University venue there will be plenty of facilities to accommodate satellite symposia and computer workshops.
Warwick University provides on-site accommodation for up to 1,000 delegates ranging from pleasant student accommodation to 3* hotel accommodation at very competitive costs. These on-site accommodation rates are guaranteed for 2013. On-site room rates per night for the main conference accommodation, including buffet breakfast:
| Accommodation | Single Occupancy | Double Occupancy |
| Standard 2* | £25 | N/A |
| Ensuite 2* | £35 | N/A |
| Radcliffe | £49 | £59 |
| Scarman | £49 | £59 |
Off-site nearby hotel accommodation: rooms are available in the range of 28 – 150 GBP.
It was stated by Prof Elspeth Garman that the registration fee of ECM28 will not be higher than the registration fee of ECM25 in 2009 Istanbul plus the rate of inflation. There is a special pack offer for the students for 400€ including 4 nights in a Bed & Breakfast (eB&Bf). Delegate fee registration will include: access to all scientific sessions, Opening Ceremony reception, Student Mixer, refreshment breaks morning and afternoon of each full day, excursion day, Cultural Tour, Delegate Bag, Programme and Abstract book, Programme at-a-glance. Registration for accompanying personsf will include: Delegate bag, Opening Ceremony reception, excursion day, one additional sight seeing tour. ECA members will receive a discount on the full registration fee.
The organizers are confident that numerous Exhibitors will participate in this Meeting. There is a solid relationship with BCAfs core Exhibitors some of whom are: Analysco Ltd, Bruker AXS Ltd, Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Crystalmaker Software Ltd, ICDD, Digilab Genomics, Incoatec GmbH, Marresearch GmbH, Rigaku€ope, PANalytical Ltd, Oxford Cryosystems, Oxford Diffraction, Oxford University Press, Taylor and Francis, Thermal Exchange ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific. The UK is also a very attractive venue for International exhibitors and thus the organizers anticipate many Exhibitors will attend.
The conference excursion will go to eDiamondf Synchrotron. Finally, there was a short introduction to the attractions in the Warwick Local Area and the widespread experiences on conference organization of the PCO. Preliminary experiences will be collected on the venue during the 2010 BCA Annual Meeting will be held at the Warwick University.
The Councillorsf decision was then deferred to the Council Meeting eDay 2f thus allowing the usual careful deliberations after eDay 1f Council.
IUCr-ECA link
7 IUCr-ECA link
Prof Sine Larsen, President of IUCr, reported on the working IUCr – ECA relationship which has had a continuous dialogue. She expressed the wish to enhance the collaboration between SIG-s and IUCr Commissions. Prof. Chris Gilmore is the assigned ECA-link member of the IUCr Executive Committee.
Prof. Chris Gilmore took part on the ECA Executive Committee Meeting February 2009 in Budapest.
The IUCr at the Executive Committee Meeting in Toronto July 2009 has initiated work to make changes in the IUCr statutes and by- laws (e.g. regarding General Assemblies). Statutes and by-laws of ECA may have to be reviewed and changed accordingly. Among the proposed changes are that the Regional Associates get an item on the IUCr General Assembly Agenda to be allowed to speak formally and other measures are being considered that can increase the role of the Regional Associates within the IUCr. Also the wording of the IUCr-ECA link should be included in the ECA statutes and by-laws.
National Crystallographic Associations
8 National Crystallographic Associations
8.1 Regional Committee of Crystallographers from Algeria, Latvia, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine
Prof Engin Kendi reported on the live cooperation among the countries and the successful representation of the group of countries in the IUCr referring to the last activity, at the General Assembly last year in Osaka.
Observer Countries
8.2 Observer Countries
Armenia is on the way to establishing its national crystallographic association at the encouragement of the ECA and has launched its website (http://www.armcrysta.org/). Representatives of Iran and Macedonia expressed their willingness to work forward in their countries to organise national crystallographic association.
No news from Belarus and Estonia of any similar development as yet. Organisers of the Nordic Crystallographic Meetings will try to include participants from the Baltic countries.
ECA covered the registration fee (2x370€) of two participants (Kiril Krezhov Bulgaria and Leonid Vasylechko Ukraine) to help their participation at ECM25.
Africa and Middle East-East
8.3 African and Middle East-East Crystallographic Regions
There are some African countries with developing scientific contributions but they are still limited in number. Travel and organisation of scientific cooperations, and meetings are still difficult in Africa.
A very significant regional development in the Middle East region is the construction of the SESAME synchrotron radiation facility in Jordan, which involves numerous researchers from the region. NATO is very supportive of the SESAME initiative.
ECA memberships
9 ECA memberships: Enlarging the number of IMs and CAMs of the ECA
Relationship between ECA, the ECM's and the CAM's
Prof Radomir Kuzel prepared last year and up-dated this year a leaflet with information about the€opean Crystallographic Association. The brochure includes an Application form to become an Individual or Corporate Member of ECA. The leaflet had successfully encouraged several firms to become a corporate member. It thus had a positive influence on the financial situation of ECA already.
The basic number of crystallographers in a country could be taken from the refreshed World Directory of Crystallographers. ECA will be able to improve its NMs estimates using the newly updated WDC. National Associations should be encouraged to collect the membership fee (like in Italy and Switzerland). In reverse, the World Directory of Crystallographers should be informed about the ECA individual members.
A reminder was successfully sent to all former IMs by Prof Radek Kuzel about the need to renew their memberships. There are already conferences/workshops where application for financial support is only considered if the applicant is registered in the WDC.
Councillors and SIG officers should be individual members of ECA. Councillors should encourage researchers of their country and SIG officers should encourage researchers of their field to be individual members of ECA.
A booth was arranged during ECM25 where forms were available to become an IM member of ECA. It was made possible to pay the ECA individual membership fee together with the Meeting registration fee, and to become a member of ECA at the ECM registration desk. The IM membership category of the ECA of an ECM25 participant was indicated on the ECM25 conference badge by colour.
It is important to approach young crystallographers to become members; easiest way is at schools or workshops. ECA membership may be made a condition of the award for a student bursary from the ECA.
The Crystal Growth community could be involved more.
The presence of Exhibitors at ECMs is vital. Donations received from companies are, as ever, needed.
At future ECM-s the price for non-ECA-CAMs should go up by 10% compared to the costs imposed on ECA-CAMs.
Annual Reports of SIGs
10 Annual Reports regarding SIG's activity
10.1 SIG.1 Macromolecular Crystallography (Keith Wilson) accepted
Chair: Keith Wilson, Co-chair: Matthias Bochtler, Secretary: Wolf-Dieter Schubert. Active members: 69.
10.2 SIG.2 Charge, Spin & Momentum Density (Ullrich Pietsch) accepted
Chair: Bo Brummerstedt Iversen, Co-chair: Ullrich Pietsch, Secretary: Carlo Gatti. Active members: 33.
The new website is now available.
10.3 SIG.3 Aperiodic Crystals (Sander van Smaalen) accepted
Chair: Sander van Smaalen, Co-chair: -, Secretary: Michal Dusek. Active members: 29.
Extensive website development. SIG3 would like to have larger representation at ECM-s (more than one MS and keynote lecture).
10.4 SIG.4 Electron Crystallography (Ute Kolb) accepted
Chair: Louisa Meshi, Co-chair: -, Secretary: Ute Kolb. Active members: 24.
There is a hard effort to increase the number of members, and to involve more young scientists. A new poster prize was introduced at ECM25. Schools were and will be regularly organised.
10.5 SIG.5 Mineral and Inorganic Crystallography (Frédéric Hatert) accepted
Chair: Frédéric Hatert, Co-chair: Sergey V. Krivovichev, Secretary: Massimo Nespolo. Active members: 65.
SIG5 is active in organising schools. Last year the name of the SIG was changed to broaden the field of the SIG.
10.6 SIG.6 Instrumentation and Experimental Techniques (IET) (Naomi Chayen) accepted
Chair: Jean-Louis Hodeau, Co-chair: Naomi Chayen, Secretary: Gernot Heger. Active members: 57.
Poster prize in honour of Prof Grohowski was introduced at the last ECM, ECM24 Marrakech. The SIG is active in the organisation of microsymposia and keynote lectures at the ECM-s, and in organisation of schools.
10.7 SIG.7 Molecular Interaction and Recognition (MIR) (Susan Bourne) accepted
Chair: Susan Bourne, Co-chair: Carl Henrik Gorbitz , Secretary: Paola Gilli. Active members: 69.
SIG7 had 2 keynote lectures and 5 microsymposia during ECM25. The SIG is active in organising schools: Indaba6 and H-bonding school in Paris in 2009.
Prof John R Helliwell: SIGs 7 and 13 have no common microsymposium organised at ECM25. The cooperation of the two SIG-s in their common Focus Area should be increased.
10.8 SIG.8 Powder Diffraction (SIGPD) (Radomir Kuzel) accepted
Chair: Paolo Scardi, Co-chair: Robert Cernik, Secretary: Udo Welzel. Active members: 84.
The previous EPDIC meeting was held in Warsaw 2008, the next one will take place in Darmstadt 2010. Powder Diffraction Poster Prize was introduced at ECM25.
10.9 SIG.9 Crystallographic Computing (CCSIG) (Ton Spek) accepted
Chair: Ton Spek, Co-chair: Lachlan Cranswick, Secretary: -. Active members: . Active members: 72.
SIG9 seeks more representation at ECM-s.
There is a substantial overlap between the SIG9 and the IUCr Commission on Crystallographic Computing.
10.10 SIG.10 Diffraction physics and optics (-) -
Chair: Mikhail Kovalchuk, Co-chair: Bernarde Capelle, Secretary: -. Active members: 38.
Prof John R Helliwell sent a letter to Prof Mikhail Kovalchuk, Chair of SIG10, on the unsatisfactory activity of the SIG10 (bilateral cooperaton only), advising of the options of either to revitalize the group and/or initiate its merger with SIG6.
10.11 Crystallography under Extreme Conditions (Leonid Dubrovinsky) accepted
Chair: Leonid Dubrovinsky, Co-chair: Alfonso San-Miguel, Secretary: Karen Friese. Active members: 45.
Previous and planned schools, activity in education of young scientists and partnerships were highlighted.
10.12 SIG.12 Crystallography of Functional Materials (Helmut Ehrenberg) accepted
Chair: Helmut Ehrenberg, Co-chair: Julien Haines, Secretary: Xavier Torrelles. Active members: 101.
The SIGfs new conductors have made a strong effort to revitalise the activity of the SIG.
10.13 SIG.13 Molecular Structures and Chemical Properties (Fernando J. Lahoz) accepted
Chair: Fernando J. Lahoz, Co-chair: Paul Raithby, Secretary: Alessandra Crispini. Active members: 100.
The activity of the SIG is high, contribution to ECM-s are traditionally significant (ECM25: 3 keynote lectures and 9 MS). A brand new website sig13.ecanews.org has been launched.
Young Crystallographers
11 Establishment of a Committee for Young Crystallographers in the ECA region
Summary of Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda on Young Crystallographers in ECA.
The integration of new generations of crystallographers is one of the aims of the ECA Executive Committee. One of the instruments is the encouragement of participation in the ECMs through the reduction of fees and grants to cover the participation costs, as well as increasing the number, amount and visibility of the different works presented by the young participants. The importance of the informal contacts led to the organization of evening mixers at ECMs that could perhaps even lead to a future proposal for a special 1-day ECM Science mini-conference of young crystallographers.
The ECA membership has also very special prices for the young members, under 35, as well as the growing engagement of the young members in the SIGs structures and even in the ECA Exec Comm. Some local initiatives to organize the young scientists interested in crystallography are currently being organized as sections of national associations. One of them is the young crystallographers section of the British Crystallographic Association, led by young crystallographers in Britain, and who organized their first event four years ago. They have held annual meetings before the BCA spring meeting starts. Approximately a hundred attendees presented plenary, microsymposia and poster presentations where supervisors are allowed to participate. A webpage is prepared. The Czech-Slovakian Crystallographic Association organizes every second year student presentations. The first international meeting for young crystallographers was organized in Spain - Gijon (Asturias) - in September 2009. It was organized by, and, for young scientists and many of the organizers are habitual participants at the ECMs and individual members of ECA. This first meeting of Young Crystallographers was aimed at PhD-students and Post-docs working in the field of crystallization and small molecule and protein crystallography. The meeting was an excellent opportunity for PhD-students to present their investigations in a friendly atmosphere and get familiar with scientific discussions at a broad level. This meeting is also a breeding ground for new projects and establishing new collaborations between different groups initiated by Post-docs taking their first steps into independent research.
Young Crystallographers identified by the ECA EC in the Osaka meeting were: Susanne Huth (UK), Laura Roces (Spain) and Laura Torre (Spain).
The establishment of regular independent meetings organized by young crystallographers, oriented to gather national, international or general interest groups of young scientists under the umbrellas of crystallography and crystal growth and the auspices of ECA, should be a priority within the ECA area.
All these initiatives need to be made more visible and promoted under the ECA sponsorship and be coordinated with other important activities of the€opean Crystallographic Association as the Education activities in Crystallography through the area of influence of ECA.
Susanne Huth reported about the student mixer held during ECM25 in Istanbul. They have collected the e-mail addresses of the young participants who found it a good initialization to establish a community and taking responsibilities. Although they agreed that this new community needs support from other young people communities. Young crystallographers are on the way to establish a General Interest Group within ECA, possibly by next year. Since the members are young, it needs a special effort to keep the continuity of the group. A report about the meeting of the students will be prepared and submitted to the ECA EC.
Prof Bill Duax compared the SIG system of ACA and ECA. There is a SIG of young crystallographers within ACA. There is a mentor – young scientist dinner during the annual ACA meeting. He emphasized the challenge of the fast turn over. Prof Sine Larsen mentioned that the AsCA does not have the SIG system.
The ECA supported student bursaries with 2000€ and the meeting of the young crystallographers with 1000€ in 2009 at ECM25.
European Graduate School of Crystallography
12 Progress in the establishment of a European Educational Programme in Crystallography
by M. Nespolo
The program that could best fit our proposal would be the "Erasmus Mundus" (www.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-mundus). The next call of the EU will be issued in April 2010 for programs starting between 1st August and 30th September 2011 and end not later than 31st October 2013. The students have different backgrounds notably coming from all around the world (in the ERASMUS Mundus programme).
Although the€opean Master scheme exists, the€opean graduate School is new; the latter can be considered once the Master program is launched. A network of universities has to be found who wants to participate. Crystallographers and the crystal growth community should cooperate deeply in the educational program.
Action mainstream: Erasmus Mundus educational programme (a worldwide cooperation and mobility programme that aims to enhance quality in higher education and promote intercultural understanding), ALFA Cooperation Programme (cooperation programme between the€opean Union (EU) and Latin America (LA) on higher education) and UNISCIEL online course of crystallography.
Three Actions
Action 1
Action 2
Action 3
Action 1A: EMMC in Crystallography?
Mobility: requirements and restraints
Scholarship table
Remarks on the award criteria
Education program draft according to ECA Executive Committeefs suggestions
Need: partners (HEI), list of TU validated and approved locally, gtravellingh lecturers.
Post meeting news:
The proposal of creating a speciality of Master entitled "Erasmus Mundus Crystallography" to Nancy University submitted by Prof Massimo Nespolo was validated creating a local speciality "Crystallography" within the Chemistry Master, with the creation of a new 60-hours teaching module on twins and modular structures (30 hours) and on Mathematical and computational methods for crystallography (30h). This is the first semester and was the pre-requisite to submit the proposal to the€opean Community by April 2010. First semester is at Nancy University, second semester Charles University Prague with a programme essentially fixed, and Padova for the third semester, with some details to be fixed. External lecturers will be Bernd Souvignier of Nijmegem, going to Nancy for 30 hours of lectures on algebra (the bilateral protocol is signed by the respective Presidents), Mois Aroyo of Bilbao going to Prague for 60 hours of lectures on on-line crystallography and the necessary theoretical bases, and Prof. Gastone Gilli going to Padova for a 60h lecture on Molecular Crystallography. Support letters from the industry are highly important to be collected, proving their support of our programme and their need of people well educated in crystallography. Industrial companies approached thus far are GSK and Astra Zeneca.
Prof John R Helliwell suggested circulating the information on the organisation of this possible education programme to all Councillors and SIGsf Officers for comment. A Pan-European coordination is necessary. The€opean School of Crystallography does not replace National Programmes. UK Universities need to engage with the EC in Brussels in the setting of appropriate fees to properly cover costs to facilitate their (ie UK Universities) participation in such an obviously important€opean education programme. Prof Fernando Lahoz mentioned that national initiatives can be coordinated within the frame of the€opean School. Prof Massimo Nespolo highlighted that participants ie students would have to be advertised, once EC approval would hopefully be gained, so as to attract them to take part in the programme.
Vote on the venue of ECM28 (2013)
13 Vote on the venue of ECM28 (2013)
The voting took place in esecret ballotf, as usual, at the second Council Meeting. There were 34 persons eligible for voting: 32 representatives of National Associations + 2 representatives of individual members. 28 of them were present at the Meeting. At the end of voting a etief was declared. The Decision was thereby postponed to the third Council Meeting to allow detailed consideration of the relevant ECA By-Laws and Statutes.
Decision was subsequently made following Statutes 8.4 and 8.6:
8.4 Proposals shall be accepted by a majority of votes, unless the statutes say otherwise. In cases of equality of votes the President has a casting vote.
8.6 The President's judgement in Council concerning the result of the voting shall be final, unless the correctness of a vote is questioned immediately after the judgement; in such event another vote shall take place - if it is required by the majority of the councillors, or, - if it is required by one Councillor in case the voting took place other than by roll-call or in writing; - the most recent result cancels the result of any earlier voting.
There was no claim from the Councillors. Because of the Presidentfs declared conflict of interest – ie that the President of ECA, Prof John Helliwell, is from the UK and Warwick UK presented one of the bids – Prof Sine Larsen, Vice-President of ECA had chaired the bid presentations and the voting. By these Statutes the President – in this case the Vice-President, who chaired the topic – had the casting vote.
Prof Keith Wilson noticed that in case of the Presidential decision it is not a secret ballot since we know who decides. Statutes might have to be rethought accordingly for any future such occurrence. The Executive Committee would address this point in the February 2010 Exec meeting and consider what new recommendation might have to be made to Council in August/Sept 2010 at ECM26.
Prof Sine Larsen explained her difficult situation in making the decision. Her casting vote, she said, went to Warwick. Basically the UK had now presented her second bid (UK once lost against Istanbul). Also 2013 is the centenary of the first crystal structure being solved by the Braggs in the UK.
Prof John R Helliwell as President resumed the Chair and thereby congratulated the Warwick, UK Team. On the other hand he also expressed his wish to see a successful ECA bid from Athens in the near future. He offered his experience in the preparation of their bid.
Prof Elspeth Garman invited the participants to the UK. Prof Sandy Blake suggested to improve the guidelines for the preparation of the bid.
ECA Executive Committee elections
14 ECA Executive Committee elections for Officers for the period 2009-2012
The Councillors elected by individual voting in secret ballot:
President of ECA: Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda
Vice-President of ECA: Prof Andreas Roodt
Secretary of ECA: Dr Petra Bombicz
Treasurer of ECA: Prof Radomir Kuzel
Officer of ECA: Prof Luc van Meervelt
Officer of ECA: Prof Alessia Bacchi
Officer of ECA: Prof Wulf Depmeier
Education Coordinator of ECA: Prof Massimo Nespolo
Immediate Past-President: Prof John R. Helliwell
The voting on the Individual Member Representatives was postponed due to the lack of a complete set of candidates. As the number of Individual Members is above three hundred, three Individual Member Representatives had to be elected. A second call for nomination was circulated among Individual Members of ECA after the ECM. Six nominations were received. An electronic voting by Individual Members deciding among the nominees is underway at the time of writing these Minutes.
What to do - where to go?
14 The ECA: what to do - where to go
Discussion regarding rules and future proceedings
Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda, the newly elected President of ECA, summarised his programme.
Foundation of general interest group (GIG) for the young crystallographers
Foundation of GIG on teaching is the question for the future
Increasing the number of Individual Members
Donations
Closer contact with SIG-s
Increase the number of members from non-ECA countries
Closer contact with CAM-s; smooth solving of problems of exhibitors.
Crystallographic education, 7th Framework Programme.
The next winter Executive Committee Meeting will take place in Budapest, last week-end of February, 2010.
Prof John R Helliwell briefly described the basis of his discussion at ECM25 with Prof Bill Duax on the question of a permanently assisted ie staffed office for ECA, as the ACA has. For the moment there is no fully capable financial basis for that within the ECA finances. But it was regarded at Council as an open and good question how to create such an ECA eSecretariatf.
Any other business
15 Any other business
An up-dated ECA leaflet will be prepared from time to time. Councillors were requested to collect leaflets from the ECA booth in the exhibition area and take copies with them to the National Meetings for yet further distribution. Extra copies can be requested from Prof Radomir Kuzel.
Close
16 Close
Prof John R. Helliwell expressed his hearty thanks to all members of the Council and the Executive Committee and closed the Council Meeting in 2009 in Istanbul.
Appendices to the Minutes
Report of SIG 11
SIG11:
Reported Period: 2008-2009
Report Date: 01.08.2009
Reported by: Leonid Dubrovinsky, Alfonso San Miguel, Julien Haines
1. Introduction.
For the reported period SIG11 concentrated its activity on organizing conferences and workshops. Special attention was paid to participation of young scientists in the schools and workshops. SIG11 is also actively taking part in discussions regarding the new initiative of the€opean high-pressure community in organising "Partnership for Extreme Conditions Science - PECS" at the ILL-ESRF site in Grenoble. The goal of PECS is to facilitate and develop beamline experiments at both ILL and ESRF that could bring great benefits for the high-pressure crystallography community.
2. Past Activities.
Title: Fifth International Alloy Conference (IAC-5), Cliff-Hotel Ruegen, Siedlung am Wald 22a, Germany, September 11 to 14, 2008
Sponsors/Organizers: Organized together with Psi-k and EuroMinSci. Organizers: L. Dubrovinsky, N. Dubrovinskaia and I. Abrikosov.
Short Description: The International Alloy Conferences promote commonality in the study, experimental or theoretical, of materials properties across the spectrum of materials types and conditions. Structural aspects of high-pressure behavior of alloys were in focus of most presentations.
Title: 46th€opean High Pressure Research Group Conference, Valencia, Spain, from 7th until 12th September 2008.
Sponsors/Organizers: Organized by the Univ. of Valencia and Univ of La Laguna (Spain). A. San Miguel and other SIG members are part of Scientific Advisory Commity.
Short Description: The 46th EHPRG was a large scope conference, in line with the rapid increase of high pressure activities in all areas of Physics, Chemistry, Food Science, Geosciences, Material Research and Biosciences. Several sessions were dedicated to subjects closely related to high-pressure crystallography.
Title: gHigh-Pressure Crystallography Course - ERICE 2009h, 4-14.06.2009
Sponsors/Organizers: Organized by E. Boldyreva and P. Dera with support of different organization and groups (including UICr, Psi-k, Compress). SIG11 officers and members were among lecturers and participants. SIG11 also support organizers applications for funds.
Short Description: Among more then 120 participants, about 60 were young PhD students and post-docs which got from first-hands wide overview of methodology and latest results in the field of high-pressure crystallography.
Title: School gDiamond Anvil Cell Techniqueh, 9-12.03.2009, Bayreuth, Germany
Sponsors/Organizers: C. Braun and L. Dubrovinsky, German High-Pressure Priority Program SPP1236, Bavarian Geoinsitute, Munchen University, German Crystallographic Society, SIG11.
Short Description: The purpose of the workshop was to initiate and expand the basic knowledge of high-pressure experiments with the mutli-anvil technique at different temperature ranges, and its application in science and technology. Apart participants form Germany, PhD students from Italy, France, and Russia were present.
Title: ECM25, 16-21.08.2009, Istanbul, Turkey
Sponsors/Organizers: ECA; SIG11 organized three sessions.
3. Future/Programmed Activities.
Title: 47th€opean High Pressure Research Group Conference, Paris, France, 6.09-11.08.2009.
Sponsors/Organizers: Organized by Prof. A. Polian and Paris University. SIG11 officers and members are part of Scientific Advisory Committee and active participants.
Short Description: The 47th EHPRG will be a large scope conference, in line with the rapid increase of high pressure activities in€ope in all areas of physics, chemistry, geosciences, materials synthesis and biosciences. Several sessions will dedicate to subjects closely related to high-pressure crystallography.
Title: ECM26, 29.08-02.09.2010, Darmstadt, Germany
Sponsors/Organizers: ECA; SIG11 plan to organize sessions on
high-pressure single-crystal diffraction;
structural consequences of pressure-induced spin transitions;
high-pressure crystallography at elevated temperatures;
structure and properties of functional materials at extreme conditions
Title: Workshop on "Methods of high-pressure single-crystal diffraction: From data collection to full structure determination", Darmstadt, Germany, August, .2010.
Sponsors/Organizers: Prof. R. Miletich-Pawliczek, SIG11, German High-Pressure Priority Program SPP1236
Short Description: The aim of the workshop is to teach participants how to perform single-crystal high-pressure X-ray diffraction measurements and to complete the data reduction and analysis to obtain the highest-quality data. The workshop will be tutorial in nature, and include both lectures and hands-on tutorials.
Title: Workshop "Structural studies in Laser Heated Diamond Anvil Cells", March 2010, Bayreuth, Germany
Sponsors/Organizers: L. Dubrovinsky, German High-Pressure Priority Program SPP1236, Bavarian Geoinsitute, SIG11.
Short Description: The purpose of the workshop is to initiate and expand the basic knowledge of high-pressure experiments with laser-heated diamond anvil cells and methodology of study of structure and properties of materials at high-P,T conditions.
4. Other matters.
SIG11 is actively participating in discussions regarding organising "Partnership for Extreme Conditions Science - PECS" on the ILL-ESRF site in Grenoble. The goal of PECS is to facilitate and develop beamline experiments at the both ILL and ESRF and it could greatly benefit of€opean high-pressure crystallography community.
5. Five year eoverviewf, brief activity report (2005-2009)
6. Estimated number of active members:
About 100 members.
7. List SIG officers, name and e-mail, and specify their main function in the SIG:
Chair:
Prof. Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky
Bayerisches Geoinstitut
University Bayreuth
D-95440 Bayreuth
Germany
Tel. +49-921-553736
Fax +49-921-553769
E-mail: Leonid.Dubrovinsky@Uni-Bayreuth.de
Vice-Chair
Professor Alfonso San-Miguel
Laboratoire de Physique de la Mati„yre Condens„ze et
Nanostructures
University Lyon 1 and CNRS
43 Bvd du 11 Novembre 1918
F-69622 Villeurbanne, Cedex
T„zl. (+33) (0)4 72 44 80 57
FAX (+33) (0)4 72 43 29 25
E-mail: sanmigue@lpmcn.univ-lyon1.fr
Secretary:
Dr. Julien Haines
Institut Charles Gerhardt
Equipe PMOF
University Montpellier II Sciences et Techniques du
Languedoc
Place E. Bataillon cc 003
34095 MONTPELLIER cedex 5
FRANCE
T„zl: 33-(0)4-67.14.93.49
Fax: 33-(0)4-67.14.42.90
email: jhaines@lpmc.univ-montp2.fr
Minutes of the ECA Council , Osaka 2008
Minutes of the ECA Council , Marrakech 2007
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Leuven 2006
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Florence 2005
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Budapest 2004
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Durban 2003
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Geneva 2002
Minutes of the ECA
Council , Krakow 2001
