International Union of Crystallography Report of the Executive Committee for 1997

The Fourteenth General Assembly and International Congress of Crystallography were held at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, 12-20 August 1987, by invitation of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and the Australian Academy of Science. A report, including a detailed report of the General Assembly, has been published [Acta Cryst. (1988). A44, 567-621]. The General Assembly and Congress were attended by 889 scientists from 49 countries, together with 188 accompanying persons. The first Ewald Medals and Prizes were presented at the Opening Ceremony. A special medal was given to Mr Arnold Ewald, who was representing the Ewald family. Then the award6es, Professor J. M. Cowley and Dr A. F. Moodie, received their medals and prizes. B. W. Matthews gave the Bragg Lecture, entitled Crystallography in the Life Sciences. There were 12 Main Lectures and 32 Microsymposia. The afternoons were reserved for poster sessions and ad hoc sessions. There were also two evening symposia, on high-critical-temperature superconductors and on new developments in direct methods, the latter symposium in honour of Nobel Laureates Herbert Hauptman and Jerome Karle. About 700 papers were presented. The detailed plan for the scientific programme had been compiled by an international Programme Committee at a preparatory meeting in July 1986. The abstracts submitted were printed, by direct reproduction of the typescript copy, in a book of Collected Abstracts and in a Supplement to Acta Crystallographica, Volume A43, dated 1 August 1987. Exhibitions of commercial crystallographic equipment, non-commercial apparatus and books were held during the Congress. A microcomputing display was organized by the Commissions on Crystallographic Computing and Crystallographic Teaching, whilst the Commission on Crystallographic Data organized a database demonstration. The General Assembly met on the evenings of Thursday 13 August, Friday 14 August and Tuesday 18 August. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was accepted as an Adhering Body in Category I and the Category of Adherence for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa was increased to Category II. The Assembly received the triennial financial report and the reports of the Executive Committee, the Commissions and the Union Representatives on other bodies since the Thirteenth General Assembly in 1984. New Officers of the Union, Chairmen and members of Commissions and Union Representatives were elected, the full list of these people being given as an annex to the report of the Fourteenth General Assembly and Congress. A Commission on Powder Diffraction was established and the Commission on Crystallographic Studies at Controlled Pressures and Temperatures was terminated, these fields being incorporated within the Commission on Crystallographic Apparatus. An ad interim Commission on Modulated Structures, Polytypes and Quasi-crystals and a Working Party on Crystallographic Information were appointed. The establishment of an IUCr/Oxford University Press Book Series was reported. The Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction StandardsInternational Centre for Diffraction Data (JCPDS-ICDD) was accepted as a Scientific Associate and the Asian Crystallographic Association (ASCA) was accepted as a Regional Associate. The Assembly continued the unit contribiation unchanged for the years 1988-1990 inclusive at SwFr 890. The General Assembly reaffirmed its decision to hold the Fifteenth General Assembly and Congress in Bordeaux, France, 19-28 July 1990, and provisionally accepted an invitation from the Chinese National Committee for Crystallography and the China Association for Science and Technology to hold the Sixteenth General Assembly and Congress in Beijing in 1993. The Executive Committee met for several days before, and most days during, the Congress, mainly to deal with matters directly related to the business of the General Assembly and the work of the Commissions.