Young Scientist Special Interest Group Meeting Report

2005 Annual Meeting American Crystallographic Association

Prepared by Chad A. Haynes, YS-SIG Chair 2005

YS-SIG is grateful of the continued support from the ACA community; special thanks to Marcia Colquhoun, Khalil Abboud, and Tom Selby for fantastic event planning assistance.

YS-SIG Events:

Mixer - The YS-SIG Mixer was held May 29th at Lake Terrace, Swan Hotel and Conference Center. Attendance was estimated to 200 people. Nextal Biotechnologies participated as the event’s exclusive sponsor with a 1.5K contribution. The event was very successful. Nextal Biotech was equally pleased and has agreed to sponsor the event at the same level at next year’s meeting.
Considering the popularity of the event, we are considering charging 5 or 10 dollars per attendee to help take the event ‘to the next level’. This possibility will be evaluated in light of the projected cost for next year’s Mixer.

Mentor-Mentee Dinner - The M/M Dinner was held May 30th at Disney’s Rainforest Café. 60 people participated (20 mentors). Due primarily to limited choice of venue, this year’s M/M Dinner carried an extraordinary price tag ($54/head * 60 = $3240). Traditionally the cost of the dinner is one thousand dollars. We expect to substantially reduce the cost per head at next year’s meeting. We are also considering changing the dinner to a breakfast or lunch.

YS-SIG ½ Day Session:

The session was held on May 31st; max attendance was estimated to 75 people. Chandra Patel chaired the half day session.

Session program – Cathy Drennan, Academia; Len Banaszak, Historical Perspective; Steve Ealick, Publishing; Mari Rains, Employee Hiring; David Goetz, Fellowships

A more detailed session report authored by Chandra Patel will be published in the upcoming Fall ACA Newsletter.

YS-SIG Business Meeting:

The business meeting was held immediate after the YS-SIG ½ day session and was attended by 20 people (a record number indeed!).

Session chairs 2006 meeting were elected – Peter Horanyi, UGA and Ashwini Nadkarni, UGA