Triennial Report 2005 of the IUCr Commission on High Pressure.
The third triennium for the Commission on High Pressure
started with some important changes in its membership. Most prominently,
Richard Nelmes, the ‘spiritus rector’ and driving force of the Commission
stepped down as Chair and was replaced by Martin Kunz (then
The past
three years have brought further development in high-pressure crystallography.
On one hand, established high-pressure techniques are applied in new fields
such as protein crystallography or nano-materials science, on the other hand,
high-pressure crystallography is newly combined with experimental methods (e.g.
inelastic scattering, small angle scattering, X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray
radiography), which opens new possibilities to solve problems in a variety of
disciplines. At the same time, the continuing development of established
techniques allows the application of high-pressure crystallography to more and
more sophisticated problems. This development is strongly supported by the
expansion and perfection of dedicated high-pressure experimental stations at
synchrotron- and neutron sources all over the world. Tremendous progress in
computational techniques continues to strongly support or even lead the way in
the structural exploration of matter at extreme conditions.
In order to support interaction between the individuals in
the broad field of high-pressure crystallography, the main activity of the
Commission in the past three years was the organization of symposia, workshops
and a summer school. These events are also used as a forum, which should allow
outsiders to learn about the potential, which high-pressure crystallography could
offer for their research. We also put a specific effort on supporting young
scientists in order to encourage them for a continuation of their career in
science.
Symposia, workshops and summer school:
During the Geneva Congress, the Commission organized six
microsymposia, which were all well attended. These six microsymposia were
complemented by two open Commission meetings focusing on technical development
and application of high-pressure in protein crystallography.
Following this large event in 2002, a more focused workshop
entitled “Non-ambient
Crystallography: The Science of Change” was organized in 2003 at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, by Simon Clark (LBL),
Abby Kavner (UCLA) and Commission member Sarah Tolbert (UCLA). In addition to a
range of interesting micro-symposia (“anisotropy in P/T deformations”,
“kinetics of structural change”, “theory of structure under pressure”,
“transport under pressure”, “phase transitions”, “synthesis at high pressure”)
this workshop also offered four hands-on introductory courses on “high-pressure
infra-red spectroscopy”, “high-pressure powder diffraction”, “laser-heated
diamond anvil cells” and “general alignment and maintenance of diamond anvil
cells”. These hands-on courses were especially appreciated by the 20 students,
who benefited from the IUCr travel-support.
The year 2003 also saw the very successful realization of
the first high-pressure crystallography summer school, hold between June 4th
and June 15th in
In 2004, the Commission held a workshop covering the full
scope of its activities at the Canadian Light Source in
Like in previous General Assemblies, the Commission puts a
lot of effort into shaping the program at the Florence Congress. Commission
member John Parise is a member of the Program Committee. He was instrumental in
planning six microsymposia organized by the high-pressure Commission. On top of
these six microsymposia, Commission members John Loveday and Igor Goncharenko
organize two open commission meetings, focusing on high-pressure single-crystal
crystallography and technical developments. This together with two keynote
lectures (John Tse, and Malcolm McMahon) will form a well-rounded high-pressure
‘workshop’ within the General Assembly.
Commission Meetings
The main
meeting of this triennium was held during the 2004 workshop in
Future Plans and activities:
The
upcoming triennium is very promising for the high-pressure crystallography
community. Recent progress in the artificial growth of diamonds and the
upcoming dedicated high-pressure beamline at the newly constructed Spallation
Neutron Source in
The
Commission plans more of its workshops in the years 2006 and 2007. In order to
help expanding the high-pressure community into