Canadian Division Report

July 29, 2009 - D.R. Rose

The CanDiv meeting was held July 28th, at the Toronto Annual Meeting.

1. D. Rose thanked the Canadian Light Source for sponsoring lunch.

2. On behalf of ACA Council, D. Rose thanked the community for putting on a great annual meeting and for supporting the meeting with good Canadian attendance. He invited everyone to continue to attend ACA regularly.

3. There was discussion about IUCr Assembly to be held in Montreal in 2014. Louis Delbaere and Joe Schrag provided an outline of the current issues. Mirek Cygler will be local Chair and the meeting will be organized by NRC. There will also be an ACA spring meeting in 2014, probably in the western US.

4. The Division was reminded that we can co-sponsor sessions with SIG’s, and there is a precedent for that at previous meetings. There was a suggestion that we consider forming a Canadian SIG and hold our own sessions. Discussion followed about what such a session might constitute and who would be interested in attending. D. Rose agreed to investigate this possibility with ACA Council.

5. Marie Fraser of the CNCC reminded delegates that they can get tax receipts for donations through her to the Larry Calvert Fund, which supports the Canadian Pauling Prize at the ACA meetings.

6. Pawel Grochulski gave an update on the 2 macromolecular lines at CLS.

7. Gary Enright announced a meeting in Guelph in October organized by the Brockhouse sector of CLS.

8. There was an update on the situation at Chalk River. The neutron reactor is down until future notice, but there is pressure to fix the system coming from the medical isotope community. In the meantime, there are Canadian development teams involved with 2 stations at Oak Ridge SNS, and preferential access for Canadians can be arranged.

9. There was discussion on the role of the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography. An update of the membership and activities was given. There is currently no formal mechanism for terms of members, nor of a process for appointment or election. The CanDiv of ACA would be a logical body to propose such a process. There was also a suggestion that CNCC take advantage of CanDiv meetings at the ACA to communicate with the community, as there is no national meeting in Canada. There was also suggestion for better communication from CNCC to the community.

10. Requests for interest were made for standing as CanDiv Chair for the upcoming election. Gerald Audette (York U) indicated willingness.