Crystallographers to Convene at Disney World

The 2005 annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA) will take place from Saturday, 28 May, to Thursday, 2 June, at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, located in the center of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Walt Disney World Swan will be the venue for all conference activities.

The meeting begins with workshops on Saturday, 28 May. Attendees will have the chance to learn about macro-molecular structure validation, biology on the colloid and nanoscales, structure solution and refinement using powder diffraction, and software for protein crystallography.

The main conference program will run Sunday, 29 May, through Thursday, 2 June, with four parallel sessions in the morning and afternoon. All of the ACA special-interest groups will be represented: biological macro-molecules, electron diffraction, fiber diffraction, general interest, industrial, materials science, neutron scattering, powder diffraction, service crystallography, small-angle scattering, small molecule, synchrotron radiation, and young scientists. Among the conference highlights is the Transactions Symposium on Monday morning, 30 May. This year’s topic is “New Horizons in Structure-Based Drug Discovery.”

Two sessions have been organized to honor ACA award recipients. The A. Lindo Patterson Award is going to T. Alwyn Jones, professor of structural biology at Uppsala University in Sweden, for his contributions to computer graphics techniques that “have revolutionized the methodology of protein structure determination.” The award will be presented at a symposium Tuesday afternoon, 31 May, on “Macromolecular Model Building and Validation.” As part of that symposium, Jones will give his award lecture, “From Inter to O.” As part of a session Sunday afternoon, 29 May, focusing on young scientists, Jennifer Swift will receive the Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award. Her award lecture is entitled “Growth and Dissolution of Cholesterol Crystals.” She is the Clare Boothe Luce assistant professor of chemistry at Georgetown University.

Poster sessions will run Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30pm. The annual banquet and awards ceremony will take place Wednesday, with a reception starting at 6:30pm and dinner following at 7:30. At the ceremony, the winners of five poster prizes—the 2005 International Union of Crystallography, Journal of Chemical Crystallography, Oxford, Pauling, and Protein Data Bank poster prizes—will be announced, and Frances Jurnak will give the Past President’s Address.

Many other social events have been planned for the meeting. The opening reception, which begins at 8:00pm on Saturday, 28 May, in the Sawn Ballroom, will provide an opportunity to mix and mingle with new and returning attendees. Young scientists will have the opportunity to learn from veterans at Sunday evening’s mentor/mentee mixer and at Monday’s mentor/mentee dinner at the Rainforest Café, part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A fun run sponsored by Rigaku/MSC Inc is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Featuring more than 38 companies, the exhibit show will begin Saturday evening in conjunction with the opening reception and will run through Wednesday, with hours 10:00am–7:30pm on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and 10:00am–3:30pm on Wednesday. Along with books, journals, and other tools for modern crystallography, the show will present the latest techniques and instruments for sample isolation, purification, and preparation; crystal growth; and data collection, storage, and analysis.

More information about the conference can be found at the meeting’s website: http://xray.chem.ufl.edu/aca2005 .