Fiber Diffraction SIG Report – 2005

After a period of less intense activity, the fiber diffraction SIG, now in its sixteenth year of existence, has recently been revitalized. We have a full Executive Committee again; Gerald Stubbs is now the Chair-Elect, and Amy Kendall is the new Secretary. This year we have sponsored a session on Advances in Neutron Fiber Diffraction, organized jointly with the Neutron Scattering SIG. Members of the SIG have also been active in a number of loosely connected fiber diffraction organizations, including FiberNet, the NSF-sponsored research coordination network for biological fiber diffraction, BioCAT, an NIH-supported research center that provides programmatic access for biological fiber diffraction to the Advanced Photon Source at beamline 18-ID, CCP13, the British fiber diffraction organization, and Fibre Diffraction Review, the CCP13-sponsored fiber diffraction journal. FiberNet, whose activities are not solely confined to biological fiber diffraction, functions as a center for communication between these groups, and also sponsors or partly sponsors fiber diffraction meetings. These include a very successful workshop at APS in October 2004 and partial financial support for the neutron fiber diffraction session at this year’s ACA meeting.

A particularly important role for the Fiber Diffraction SIG has always been to bring biological fiber diffractionists and synthetic polymer fiber diffractionists together, since these two groups share many methodological approaches, but are rarely together at other meetings. We are pleased to note that this year’s session once again includes an excellent mix of contributions from the two fiber diffraction sub-communities.