We received two interesting invitations for young scientist from ECA.

Firstly, they announce the start of the European Crystallography Video Contest! The goal of this contest is to introduce young students to the exciting and challenging world of crystal growth and crystallography, and is open to all schoolchildren from European countries. You can find more information, including how schools can participate and important dates, on the ECA website.

Secondly, our attention was addressed to the recently announced call for the assignment of grants from the funds of the “Women in Crystallography” fundraising project. These grants are intended to provide financial support for Early Career female scientists to attend meetings, congresses, and schools of crystallographic interest. You can find more information, including how to apply for these grants, on the ECA website

We are very sad to have been notified by the ECA about the news of the recent passing of Dr. Olga Kennard. Dr. Kennard was the founder of the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre and contributed to the creation of the Protein Data Bank and the Nucleic Acid Sequence Database. More about her contributions to science can be read in the announcement on the ECA website.

The IUCr news letter volume 30, issue 4 is out! You can find it here.

The ECA (European Crystallographic Association) invites you to join the online lectures on Quantum Crystallography and Complementary Fields on December 21st. Lectures provided:

This time there will be 3 lectures which will start at 4 pm CET on the 1^st of December, 2022:

Lecture 16:  “Modelling electrostatic potential in electron diffraction studies” by Paulina Dominiak
(Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Poland)

Lecture 17: “Exploring dynamical scattering using ‘digital’ large-angle convergent beam electron diffraction
(D-LACBED) patterns” by Richard Beanland (Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK)

Lecture 18:  “3D electron diffraction for charge density analysis: what are the challenges?”  by Lukas Palatinus
(Division of Solid State Physics, Department of Structure Analysis, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy
of Sciences, Prague, Czechia)

Such lectures will be held once per month, starting in December. For registration and more information, please have a look at the event page here.

It is still possible to nominate scientists for the ECA Perutz Prize 2022, HCS/ECA Kálmán Prize 2022, and ECA/ENSA Bertaut prize 2022.
The deadline for nominations is the 15th of April.

The European Crystallographic Association (ECA) is pleased to announce a call for nominations for three different prizes:

• the twelfth Max Perutz Prize. This Prize will be awarded in recognition of meritorious achievements in any branch of crystallography to an individual scientist clearly affiliated with the ECA. More information can be found here.

• the second Alajos Kálmán Prize. This Prize will be awarded to an individual researcher in recognition for outstanding scientific contributions in the field of structural sciences within the last 5-10 years. The nominee must have a clear affiliation with ECA. The prize has been established by the Hungarian Chemical Society and is endorsed by ECA. More information here.

• the tenth Erwin Félix Lewy Bertaut Prize. This prize is awarded to a young scientist (up to 8 years after finishing her or his PhD thesis) having a clear affiliation with the ECA/ENSA region, in recognition of notable experimental, methodological or theoretical contributions to the investigation of matter using crystallographic or neutron scattering methods. The European Neutron Scattering Association (ENSA) and ECA award the Bertaut Prize in a regular alternating sequence, or as specified by the two associations based on mutual agreement. More information here.

The prizes will be awarded at the next European Crystallographic Meeting (23 – 27 August 2022) in Versailles, France.