Young Scientists SIG Report 2007

YS-SIG Social Events

1) Mentor/Mentee dinner: This was held at Squatters Pub on Monday night. The format of open bar with mingling, followed by seated buffet dinner encouraged interaction as it was meant to. Feedback was good. -there was a lot of interaction between the mentees and mentors.  It was suggested the reason was because every one was moving around.   Attendance was low; anecdotally, we heard that some people chose to attend the Mar dinner instead.

1) YS-SIG Mixer: This year's mixer was held at the Salt Lake City Public Library on Tuesday night. The venue was splendid and there was immediate mingling between guests of various ages and locations. Qiagen contributed $2500 to the event. Comments from YS-SIG members indicated that the venue was “wonderful” and that the mariachi music was a good touch. It was suggested that we should hold the mixer earlier in the week to allow people to interact earlier. Attendance was high.

YSSIG sponsored sessions

1) Fun Lectures for Young Scientists: This year's session was chaired by Bobby Huether, It featured a variety of topics, but focused on career development. The session was well attended, with many students posing questions to the speakers. It progressed smoothly, save that one of the confirmed speakers was unable to attend.

2) Etter Award Session (co-sponsored with GIG): The session was chaired by Peter Horanyi (YS-SIG chair elect). The session was divided between small-molecule and macromolecular partial sessions, which was convenient for participants. We were grateful for the waived registrations awarded to the student presenters.

YSSIG Business meeting

Approximately 15-20 participants attended. The meeting was chaired by YS-SIG 2007 chair Anna Gardberg. YS-SIG Secretary Mark Collins could not attend, so Bobby Huether graciously agreed to record minutes.

1) There was discussion of what was good and bad about the YS-SIG events. Some students suggested a fuller description of the Mentor-Mentee event be provided with the registration form, as they had thought they were meant to attend with their PIs. To avoid conflict with the Mar dinner, the attendees liked the idea of holding the Mixer on Sunday or Monday night in 2008, with mentoring explicitly encouraged, and to hold a smaller mentoring event with snacks or lunch at some other time during the meeting (eg a Mentor-Mentee Lunch).

2) The floor was opened to propose session topics for 2008. In addition to the popular Etter award, ideas included a themed session (jobs), the use of crystallographic computing programs (perhaps as a workshop), the availability and preparation of grants, the situation for crystallographers working in a foreign country, and an overview of professional crystallography in academic, government, and industrial settings, especially the stresses and benefits of each. The suggestion by Allen Oliver of the Service Crystallography-SIG to co-sponsor a session (chaired by SC-SIG) on applying for beamtime at various X-ray and neutron sources was viewed favorably.

3) A major problem getting volunteers to chair sessions was the uncertainty that post-docs and students face regarding traveling to conferences. Funding is very tight. We would like the Council to consider guaranteeing registration and travel funds for the YS-SIG session chairs.

4) The sessions that we would like to sponsor at ACA 2008 are:   

Professional Directions in Crystallography   Chair: Tara Davis has provisionally accepted.

Etter Award (We hope to co-sponsor with General Interest Group) Chair: Anna Gardberg

Applying for Beamtime (Co-Sponsor with Service Crystallography SIG) (Chair(s) from SC-SIG)

5) We took nominations for the next SIG elections:

Bobby Huether was nominated for Chair-Elect

Mark Collins, Columbia University, is retained as Sec/Treas automatically

Peter Horanyi, University of Virginia, moves from Chair-Elect to Chair automatically

Submitted by Anna Gardberg 7/25/07