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23rd Congress and General Assembly of the International
Union of Crystallography (IUCr2014) ReportmMaterials
science fieldn
Kim Hyunjeong(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

If you are a grad student, a young researcher, or a scien­

perfect opportunity to learn new techniques or programstist who wants to know the most recent advances in crystal­directly from experts or program developers. This year's

lography, I would recommend attending the Congress andworkshops include introduction to aperiodic crystals,

General Assembly of the International Union of Crystal­

XAFS (X­ray Absorption Fine Structure), the USPEX

lography. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the largest in­code (Universal Structure Predictor: Evolutionary Xtal­

ternational meeting for people in many branches of sciencelography) for crystal structure prediction, the SHELX pro­putting their heart and soul into crystallography (thegram for small and macromolecular crystal structure deter­branch of science devoted to the study of molecular andmination, and OLEX2 program for structural solution andcrystalline structure and properties, with far­reaching ap­

renement. There was also a workshop for the utilization

plications in mineralogy, chemistry, physics, mathematics,of XFEL (X­ray Free Electron Laser) facilities. In addi­

biology and materials science. http://www.iucr.org/).

tion, various commission and council meetings took place

This meeting has been held every three years ever sincethroughout the congress period.

the rst one in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948, a year

The congress ocially began in the evening of the rst

after the International Union of Crystallography wasday. At the opening ceremony, the presentation of theformed based on an idea proposed by Paul Peter Ewald in

Ewald Prize was made. The Ewald Prize has been awarded

1944. Japan has hosted the congress twice; one was inevery three years to outstanding contributors to the science

Kyoto in 1972 and the other in Osaka in 2008. The amountof crystallography since 1986. This year's winner is Profes­of new information presented during the congress is enor­

sors Aloysio Janner and Ted W. J. M. Janssen from themous and it is literally impossible to keep up with what has

University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands for the develop­

been going on in all elds of crystallography. Therefore, Iment of superspace crystallography and its application tomainly give a rough overview of what the congress is like inthe analysis of aperiodic crystals. Prof. Janssen gave anthis report. I deeply apologize in advance for delivering

Ewald Prize lecture. In addition to the Ewald Prize, thescience only limited to the eld that I am involved in.

Gjønnes Medal was also given to outstanding contributors

This year, the 23rd congress took place in Montreal, theto the eld of electron crystallography. This year's

second largest city in Canada, from August 5 to 12. Thisrecipients are Professor Michiyoshi Tanaka from Tohoku

year's congress is very meaningful because the United Na­

University in Japan and Professor John Steeds from thetions declared 2014 as the International Year of Crystal­

University of Bristol in England for their contributions tolography to mark the centenary of a series of historic ex­convergent­beam electron diraction.

periments by William Henry Bragg, William Lawrence

The scientic program scheduled from the second day ofBragg (father and son) and Max von Laue which estab­the congress was very rich. Each day started with threelished the modern science of X­ray crystallography. Thisparallel keynote lectures followed by eight parallel

year is also the 400th anniversary of Kepler's observation

microsymposia until late afternoon. At each microsymposi­of the symmetrical form of ice crystals (http://www.

um session three invited and three regular talks wereiycr2014.org/). Many events and activities celebrating thegiven. The oral session was completed after three parallel

International Year of Crystallography are taking place all

keynote lectures and a plenary lecture in the late afternoon.

over the world.

In the evening, the poster sessions were held until 8F30

The rst day of the congress, as usual, was dedicated top.m. This year, there were one Ewald Prize, two Gjønnes

a half or full day workshops for various structure determi­

Prize, four plenary and 34 keynote lectures. Total 112

nation techniques and software programs. I think this is a

microsymposia covering a wide range of topics were or­úËõ Nov. 2014 Vol.27 No.6  339(C) 2014 The Japanese Society for Synchrotron Radiation Research

Prof. Greedan from McMaster University in Canada talking about magnetic
ordering in double perovskites.

ganized and around 1300 posters were presented. In addi­tion, software fayre, where developers of open­source

A mix of modern and historic buildings creates a captivating landscape inMontreal.

software programs demonstrate their software programswith some practical examples, took place concurrently withmicrosymposia. Industrial workshops were held during

to investigate local structural change in Li­ion battery

lunch time sometimes providing free lunch. Of course, allmaterials during charging and discharging processes.

work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Several social ac­

Several successful examples using this setup were present­

tivities like tours, Jazz Night, and Banquet were arranged

ed. Reinhard B. Neder from the University of Erlangen­for the congress participants and accompanying persons toN äurnberg in Germany showed a possible way to handle thelearn and enjoy the beautiful and vibrant city of Montreal.

eect of preferred orientation in the atomic pair distribu­

The amount of new science I encountered during thetion function. The complex modeling approach, in whichcongress was overwhelming. The total scattering com­multiple experimental inputs and theoretical constraints

munity that I am mainly involved in has grown considera­

are combined to optimize a structural model, seems to be

bly for past three years. There were certainly an increasing

the mainstream of the software development in the total

number of oral and poster presentations covering this topic

scattering eld and there are already several successfulcompared to the last congress. In particular, a large num­studies available. My greatest reward of this year's con­ber of studies were dedicated to observation of how

gress was an encounter with ISODISTORT, a software al­

nanoparticles grow by in situ time resolved total scatteringlowing us to generate and explore the structural distortion

experiments. This experiment utilizing high ux and highmodes of crystalline materials. This software has tremen­energy synchrotron X­ray and a fast­readout area detector

dous potential to unlock local distortions in various crystal­was rst carried out by Peter J. Chupas and his colleaguesline materials.

at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) in the U.S. seven

The congress becomes more and more exciting eachyears ago and now similar experiments can be conducted intime. It provides many opportunities to make new friends

various other synchrotron facilities. Another popular topic

and to encounter interesting new science. The next con­was Li­ion battery material. Karena W. Chapman at thegress will be held in Hyderabad, India in 2017. I hope thisAPS has developed in situ operando total scattering setup

report encourages you to give it a try.

340  úËõ Nov. 2014 Vol.27 No.6