Executive Committee and Council News
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Date: 20 November 2001 From: The Secretary , Subject: Minutes of the ECA Council, Krakow 2001 Minutes of the Meeting of the Council held in Krakow during ECM-20 on 27, 28 August 2001. Those present: day(s) present Member-Countries, Councillors or Proxies : [] = not present p: = proxy
| At Austria: [ Anton Preisinger ] p: Franz Pertlik | |_______28 |
| Be Belgium: [ Albert T.H. Lenstra ] p: Luc van Meervelt | |___27__28 |
| Bg Bulgaria: [ Olyana Angelova ] | |_________ |
| Hr Croatia: Boris Kamenar | |___27__28 |
| Cz Czech+Slovakia: Jindrich Hasek | |___27__28 |
| Dk Denmark: [ Robert Feidenhans'l ] p: Bente Lebech | |___27__28 |
| Eg Egypt: Karimat El-Sayed | |___27__28 |
| Ee Estonia: [ Hugo Mandar ] | |_________ |
| Fi Finland: [ Timo Paakkari ] p: Merja Blomberg | |___27__28 |
| Fr France: Jean Louis Hodeau | |___27__28 |
| De Germany: [ Wulf Depmeier ] p: Ulrich Bismayer | |___27__28 |
| Gr Greece: Irene Mavridis | |___27__28 |
| Hu Hungary: Alajos Kalman | |___27__28 |
| Il Israel: [ Menachem Kaftory ] p: Israel Goldberg | |___27__28 |
| It Italy: Davide Viterbo | |___27__28 |
| Lv Latvia: [ Anatolij Mishnev ] | |_________ |
| Nl Netherlands: [ Bauke W. Dijkstra ] p: A.M. Thunnissen | |___27__28 |
| No Norway: [ Berit Fjaertoft ] p: Tor Dahl | |___27__28 |
| Pl Poland: Adam Pietraszko | |___27__28 |
| Pt Portugal: [ Maria Ondina Figueiredo ] p: Teresa Duarte | |___27__28 |
| Su Russia: Svetlana Zheludeva | |___27__28 |
| Yu Serbia: [ Slobodanka Stankovic ] | |_________ |
| Si Slovenia: Ivan Leban | |___27__28 |
| Za South Africa: [ Jan Boeyens ] p: Demi Levendis | |___27__28 |
| Es Spain: [ Xavier Solans ] p: Santiago Garcia Granda | |___27__28 |
| Se Sweden: [ Rolf Norrestam ] p: Ivar Olovsson | |___27__28 |
| Ch Switzerland: Ulrich Baumann | |___27__28 |
| Tr Turkey: Yalcin Elerman | |___27__28 |
| Uk United Kingdom: [ C.C. Wilson ] p: Chris Gilmore | |___27____ |
| p: Christine Cardin | |_______28 |
| Ua Ukraine: [ Oksana Ivanivna Bodak ] | |_________ |
| Elected: Paola Gilli | |___27____ |
| Elected: Carlo Mealli | |___27__28 |
| Elected: [ Paola Spadon ] | |_________ |
| Elected: Keith Wilson | |___27__28 |
| Quorum count: | [ Total: ( 27 26) ] |
| IUCr Observer: [ M. A. Carrondo ] p: Dr Margarida Archer | |___27__28 |
| Past ECC Chairman: Hartmut Fuess | |_______28 |
| Editor, IUCr Newsletter: William Duax | |_______28 |
| Other participants [ if not listed above ] | |
| SIG.2 Pierre Becker | |___27__28 |
| SIG.3 Ted Janssen | |___27__28 |
| SIG.5 Giovanni Ferraris | |___27__28 |
| SIG.6 John Helliwell | |___27__28 |
| SIG-10 Mikail Kovalchuk | |___27__28 |
| SIG-11 Alain Polian | |___27__28 |
| ECM-20: Stanislaw Hodorowicz | |___27____ |
| ECM-20: Wieslaw Lasocha | |___27__28 |
| ECM-20: Barbara Oleksyn | |___27__28 |
| ECM-20: Jacek Grochowski | |___27__28 |
| ECM-20: Katarzyna Stadnicka | |___27__28 |
| ECM-20: Maria Rutkowska | |___27__28 |
| ECM-21: Andreas Roodt | |___27__28 |
| Executive Committee: President: C. Lecomte | |___27__28 |
| Vice-President: P.T. Beurskens | |___27__28 |
| Secretary: G. Filippini | |___27__28 |
| Treasurer: T. Duarte | |___27__28 |
| Member: E. Dodson | |_________ |
| Member: M. Jaskolski | |___27__28 |
| Member: D. Viterbo | |___27__28 |
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The proposed agenda, some reports, and additional information have been distributed by e-mail circulars.
First session: 27 August.
1. Opening
1.1 Welcome to Council and Guests The Chairman welcomed the Councillors and invited them to remember with a moment of silence our friend and Dutch Councillor Professor Jan Kroon who died suddenly on May 3rd, 2001. He was a leading member of the European crystallographic community.
1.2 Approval of the agenda
The Councillors approved the proposed agenda.
1.3 Application for membership
The Secretary informed the Councillors that applications from Greece and Turkey had been submitted according to our Statutes and By-Laws. The Chairman asked for approval. The Council unanimously approved with cheers. Professors Mavridis (Greece) and Elerman (Turkey) were asked to take their seats as members of the Council.
1.4 News and information from the Executive Committee.
1.4.1 ECANEWS
The Chairman thanked the Webmaster, Professor Calestani, for the work done in keeping the website, informed the Council that an Editorial Committee, consisting of the Vice-President, the Secretary and two members will be set up in the near future and proposed that every Country should have a responsible liaison for keeping contacts with the Editorial Committee in order to speed up the flow of information. As a start the Councillors themselves will act in this office.
1.4.2 ECA Prize
The convenor of the Prize Committee, Professor Viterbo, reported on the procedures and thanked the Committee for the dedicated work which led to the Prize being awarded to Professor Jochen Schneider.
1.5 New (Corporate) Affiliate Members (CAM's)
The applications from Osmic and Molecular Simulations were approved by the Council. There are so far eight CAM's.
2. Former e-mail decisions
The Secretary reminded the Councillors of the e-mail decisions taken after the Nancy Council meeting: (i) approval of SIG10 "Diffraction physics and optics", (ii) approval of three new CAM's (Bede Scientific Instruments, Oldenbourg, Molecular Structure Co.), (iii) approval of the auditing for the budget 2000. All received approval by the "Trivial Voting Procedure".
3. Annual Reports by the Executive Committee (Aug. 2000 - 31 Dec. 2000)and preliminary progress reports (up to Aug. 2001)
3.1 Report(s) by the President
Professor Lecomte reported on the activity of the Executive Committee, which met in Milano on February 6-7 2001 to discuss on the progress of ECM20, the recruitment of new CAM's and the improvement of ECANEWS.
3.2 Report(s) by the Secretary
Dr Filippini thanked the Councillors for many fruitful contacts during the previous year and invited them to reply to the messages at least from time to time.
3.3 Report(s) by the Treasurer
Professor Duarte referred on the new ECA bank account and invited the Councillors to introduce a National collector for the IM's fees in order to simplify the procedure and save money. The situation of the budget is fine with an almost equal amount of money coming from the National and the IM's fees. She reported the Executive Committee proposal to have the budget audited only once in the year, unless there is a change of the Treasurer: in this case the auditing is needed also at an intermediate stage to relieve the previous Treasurer from any obligation towards the Association.
4. Approval by the Council of the submitted accounts (re 3.3)
4.1 Auditors for 2001
The Councillors (i) approved the proposal of an yearly audition of the budget, (ii) decided to continue with the internal auditing and (iii) nominated Professors Maria Ondina Figueiredo and Santiago Garcia-Granda as auditors for the year 2001.
5. Reports regarding SIG's
5.1 SIG.1 Macromolecular Crystallography
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.2 SIG.2 Charge, Spin & Momentum Density
The report has been received by the Secretary only recently and will be e-mailed to the Councillors (Encl. C). Professor P. Becker reported on the many activities carried out or supported by the SIG.
5.3 SIG.3 Aperiodic Crystallography
The report has been received in the form of a reference the SIG-website and the information was distributed by e-mail to the Councillors.
5.4 SIG.4 Electron Crystallography
Due to lack of communication, the report is late and will be e-mailed to the Councillors as soon as possible. Professor Gilmore, the present Chair, reported briefly.
5.5 SIG.5 Mineralogical Crystallography
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.6 SIG.6 Instrumentation and Experimental Techniques (IET)
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.7 SIG.7 Molecular Interaction and Recognition (MIR)
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.8 SIG.8 Powder Diffraction ( SIGPD )
No report has been received so far and the Council urged the Secretary to contact the officers of the SIG.
5.9 SIG.9 Crystallographic Computing ( CCSIG )
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.10 SIG.10 Diffraction physics and optics
The report has been received and e-mailed to the Councillors.
5.x Further developments re SIG's
Professor Polian reported on the progress of the possible new SIG on "Crystallography at High Pressure and Extreme Conditions".
Professor Lecomte stressed the need of a SIG on "Material Science" and reported about some contacts he has been pursuing to have it implemented.
Professor K. Wilson warned about "broad" and "strictly defined" SIG's.
Second session: 28 August.
6. Reports regarding ECM's 6.0 Relationship between ECA and the ECM's
A draft report (Appendix A) prepared by Professors Lecomte and Viterbo has been circulated among the Councillors and a preliminary discussion was initiated. Professor Fuess reminded that the points under discussion regard "rules" not "laws". The Council decided that further discussion was necessary especially on points not considered in the draft. Professors Lecomte and Viterbo will receive all amendments and addenda and a final draft will be considered at the next Council meeting in Geneva.
6.1 ECM-19 (2000) Nancy
The report (Appendix B) has been circulated among the Councillors. The Council expressed its appreciation.
6.1.1 ECM19 money and future meetings
Money saved from ECM-19 has been given to ECA as a "flywheel" for future ECM's. In fact, some has been made available to the organisers of the ECM-20 on the provision that possible savings will be treated accordingly.
6.2 ECM-20 (2001) Krakow
A preliminary report was given by Dr Lasocha (Appendix C). Professor Oleksyn reported about the facilities for students, which ranged from the "student package" (accommodation included in the registration fee) to specific bursaries covering accommodation or travel expenses. About 150 students were involved in the scheme.
Some discussion arose about criteria for sponsorship and the competition between the activity of the SIG's and the satellite meetings. Professor Fuess wondered if it was the case to reduce the number of satellites. Professor K. Wilson suggested to reduce to 5 (plus half-day excursion) the length of ECM's and to put all abstracts on the web. Professor Hodeau was in favour of fewer parallel microsymposia.
6.3 ECM-21 (2003) Durban - Proposals and suggestions about travel organisation for ECM21.
Professors Roodt and Levendis introduced the ECM-21 website (www.ecm21-africa.co.za) and showed pictures of the Conference site and the possible accommodation. They are now addressing their attention to possible packages for travel from Europe. The discussion pointed out many aspects which need further consideration: (i) possible participants from USA and Japan, (ii) availability of EC money for grants, (iii) connections with the Sagamore Conference in Australia (iv) conference excursion on the last day, to reduce the meeting length. Further information will be provided on the website and eventually in Geneva.
7. Proposals and decisions regarding ECM-22 ( and ECM-23 )
Professor Kalman put forward the proposal of holding ECM-22 in 2004 in Budapest under the auspices of the Hungarian Chemical Society. The meeting would take place in the last decade of August at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Budapest, unless a new Congress Centre will be available at the time. The proposal was accepted with cheers. Professor K. Wilson suggested to hold the meeting at the University site, to save money, and to consider the distance between hotels and the conference site, which is presumably greater than in Krakow.
After the decision regarding the University of Budapest as the site for ECM-22 has been taken, and during the discussions concerning the consequences of holding an ECM at a university site, Dr. Frank van Meurs made a general comment that the setting for a commercial exhibition at a university may be not the ideal one for some vendors. It was decided that the Vice-President should communicate with the CAMs and future ECM organisers to define recommendations and requirements for commercial exhibitions connected to the ECM meetings, and to care for implementations at those meetings. The outcome of this will be included in the guidelines for future ECM's.
For ECM-23, in 2006, the proposal of Darmstadt and Leuven were put forward: the final decision will be taken in Geneva.
8. The ECA : what to do - where to go
The President summarised some points already discussed in the agenda, i.e. relationships between ECA and ECM's, new SIG's, guidelines for bursaries, which need further insight for a decision to be taken as soon as possible and emphasised the role of ECA in helping co-operation among African Countries, also in provision of a new Regional entity. Contacts with Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Cameroun, Senegal and Kenya are in progress.
Some Councillors raised the point of IM's: few benefits (Wilson), but pride to be part of a great community (Beurskens), important for Countries without a National Committee (Fuess), suggestions (Duax) to consider part of the ECM registration fee as a payment towards ECA membership (some renew on the following year).
9. ECA Logo
It has been decided by majority vote to use the more "artistic" logo as the ECA logo. The Secretary will take care of possible improvements.
10. Any other business
There being no further business, the Chairman thanked all the Councillors and declared the Council meeting closed.
11. Close
Appendix A
1) Only two committees must be set up : organizing (or local) and programme committees. There is no need for an advisory board or any other similar committees. The programme committee must be chaired by the chairman of the local committee.
2) Local (organizing) committee
a) Two members of the ECA Executive Committee should be in the organizing committee to ensure that they are no conflicts between the ECA projects and the local organizers. These members do not generally attend all the meeting of the organizing committee, but must be informed by e-mail of all the progresses and problems so that they can notify and discuss with the Execomm any relevant point.
The ECA members should be chosen in consultation with the chairman of the European Crystallographic meeting. If there is any need that these Execomm members attend a meeting of the organizing committee (it should be exceptional), ECA should pay the travel expenses and ECM the local accomodation.
b) The chairman (or an active member) of the former local ECM committee should be a member of the local committee because:
- he has an important experience to share with the new
local committee
- being involved in the committee he could not avoid to
give money to the new organizing committee if some profit
had been mode by the former conference.
3) Programme committee
It should be formed by:
a) The chair and two (or three) members of the organizing committee (chosen by the chair) to represent physics, chemistry and biology and coordinate all topics.
b) The president of ECA.
c) All SIG chairs (or representatives).
d) A member of the IUCr Execomm.
e) No more than 5 members (at least 3 from another country than the hosting country) chosen by the organizing committee in agreement with the ECA Execomm representing topics not included in the SIG and/or in the satellite meetings.
4)Coordination between SIG's.
There is a need for more coordination between different SIG's in planning the MS at the ECM's and this should be done at the level of the programme committee.
5)Bursary committee.
The bursary committee should be set up by the ECM chair. The selected members should represent the main crystallographic areas and at least one ECA Execomm member should participate to the discussions.
The bursary money usually comes from
- ECA funds.
- Former ECM funds (if some profit has been made).
- Corporate Members
- IUCr
- ECM registration fees
The bursaries should be as much as possible given to young scientists.
Appendix B -ECM19 was held at the Facult? des Sciences, Universit? Henri Poincar? Nancy 1, Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France from 25th - 31th August. It was organized by the staff of LCM3B, UMR 7036 CNRS (Laboratoire de Cristallographie et Mod?isation des Mat?iaux Min?aux et Biologiques), chaired by Prof. C. Lecomte.
- P. Beurskens, ECA representative
- M.A. Carrondo, ECA representative
- All SIG chairs
- Scientists nominated by the chair to cover most crystallographic research.
The meeting was attended by 1020 crystallographers not only all from European and/or ECA countries but also from USA, Canada, Japan, India, Taiwan, Australie, New Zealand, Argentina, Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroun, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, Korea, Bangladesh, Singapore, China representing almost 25% of the attendance and demonstrating that ECM meetings are more and more international meetings like ACA meetings for example.
The first ECA prize was given to Professor Ada Yonath (Israel) who gave a lecture : "Decoding the genetic information on ribosomes at molecular level" during the opening ceremony.
Twelve plenary lectures covering new results in most crystallographic areas were given.
Fifty seven (57) microsymposia (i.e 285 oral presentations) were organized, 44 of which being organized by the SIG committees. The remaining 13 MS were mostly physics and material science crystallography.
Two posters sessions allowed to discussing more than 650 posters. During the poster session awards were presented:
- CCDC Poster Prizes in Chemical Crystallography for
young Crystallographers.
- Oxford Cryosystem Award for the best poster in low
temperature crystallogaphy.
The following satellite meetings were organized :
- Electron
Density Analysis, 24-25th August, Nancy. Chair
: N. Hansen, M. Souhassou : 50 participants. Computing
school on electron density analysis.
- Surface
Crystallography, 31 August - 2nd
September, Nancy. Chair : P. Mangin, W. Moritz : 80
participants.
- Frontiers
in Macromolecular Crystallography, 31 August - 3
September, Bischenberg. Chair A. Podjarny, A. Urzhumtsev
: 110 participants.
The ECM meeting and satellites were sponsored by public and private organizations :
- IUCr,
European Commission, French Crystallographic Association,
Minist?e de l'Education Nationale, de la Recherche et
de la Technologie : Enseignement Sup?ieur Physique,
Chimie et Biologie, CNRS : SPM, Sc, Sdv, Sdu, Le Conseil
R?ional de Lorraine, Le Conseil G??al de Meurthe et
Moselle, Le grand Nancy, La ville de Nancy, La ville de
Lun?ille, L'Universit? Henri Poincar?, Le LCM3B.
- Nonius,
Molecular Structure Corporation, Brucker, Oxford
Cryosystems, Philips, Nature Structural Biology.
The total budget including the dormitories and lunches was close to 3 MF (460 000 Euros). 30 000 Euros corresponding to the positive balance were sent to ECA treasurer in order to help further meetings (20 000 for ECM 20).
ECM-20 preliminary report
The conference was organized by crystallographers from the Jagiellonian University in collaboration withscientists from Stanislaw Staszic University of Mining and Metallurgy under the auspices of the European Crystallographic Association, the International Union of Crystallography, the Polish Committee of Crystallography.
The Meeting was held at Faculties of Chemistry and Physics of the Jagiellonian University, at the Pedagogical University and in buildings of the University of Mining and Metallurgy from 25th-31st .Aug.2001.
The European Crystallographic Association awarded the second European Crystallography Prize to Prof. Jochen R. Schneider of the HASYLAB at DESY, Hamburg, Germany. During the opening ceremony he delivered a lecture "Investigating Condensed Matter with 0.01 nm X-rays" Number of plenary lectures 15
Number of microsymposia 59 (organized by SIGs 48)
Number of posters and poster sessions: 400 in two sessions
Two groups of poster awards were announced:
CCDC poster Prizes in Chemical Crystallography 3 prizes
Organizers' Prizes for the best poster in three MS with the biggest number of contributions submitted: S7M1, S8M1 (2 awarded),OM3 4 prizes
2 Workshops:
1. Twinning in chemical crystallography (one-day workshop): 30 participants
2. Workshop on structure solution from powder diffraction data (3 sessions): ~60 participants
School on Symmetry of Crystals: Introduction to International Tables for Crystallography ~30 participants
Exhibitors (commercial and not commercial) 24
Registered participants => 720
Number of supported participants (from all sources available) 140 Satellite meetings 7
1. International Symposium on Organic Crystal Chemistry 20-24 August, 2001 Poznan-Rydzyna. Organized by prof. Teresa Borowiak. ~70 participants
2. International Symposium on Synchrotron Crystallography 31 August - 4 September 2001 Krynica - Czarny Potok. Organized by assoc. prof. J. Grochowski :~60 participants
3. International Seminar on Inclusion Compounds 1-5 September 2001, Popowo, Organized by dr Kinga Suwinska ~80 participants
4. International Conference on Liquid Crystals 3-7 September, 2001 Zakopane - Koscielisko, Organized by prof. J. Zielinski. ~50-70 participants
5. Protein Crystallography Beyond 2000: High Throughput and High Quality
1-2 Sep. 2001 Krynica, organized by S.Krzywda, K.Lewinski ~60 participants
6. Aperiodic Structures 1-6 Sep., 2001 Krakow - Krynica, Organized by prof. J. Wolny ~60 participants
7. 5th International Conference on X-ray Investigations of Polymer Structures (XIPS'2001)
5-8 December, 2001 Bielsko - Biala, Organized by prof. A. Wlochowicz (to be held)
Participants of 6 satellite meetings organized up to now ~380
In total number of people attending ECM20 and related meetings was about ~ 1100 Wieslaw Lasocha - On behalf of Organizing Committee
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