January 2009 Newsletter.

Chair's Message

2009 promises to be a busy year for the Industrial Group. We have some really interesting talks planned for the Spring Meeting in our sessions, which include pharmaceutical applications and also a joint session with the BACG. The biennial XRF strand will run over the three days of the meeting; the XRF program includes trace analysis, environmental applications, and even portable instruments. For the third year running, the IG is sponsoring a prize for the best talk given at the YC session, and the winner will have the opportunity to give their talk in one of our sessions.

I'd like to remind those who are providing posters for the Spring Meeting that the 20th February is the poster abstract deadline, with a template and details of submission on the meeting web page.

The Autumn IG meeting is in it's early stages of planning; it will be held at Pilkington's Research centre in Lancashire. Apart from an opportunity to hear some great talks, the tour of Pilkington's glass exhibition is not to be missed.

Looking back to last Autumn, we had a very successful Pharmaceutical Special Interest Group Meeting, held at AstraZeneca, Charnwood. For the second time, the IG offered free places to students, and 13 of these were taken up. Thanks to both AstraZeneca and Pilkington for the free use of their facilities. The great quality of the programs and the positive remarks we get from attendees are a tribute to the hard work that goes in to planning and contributing to these meetings. I'd like to extend my thanks to all those involved, whether as organisers, speakers, or venue providers.

Anne Kavanagh - IG Chair.

Editorial

Welcome to this edition of the BCA Industrial Group's Newsletter. It contains a report of the Pharmaceutical Special Interest Group Meeting which was held at AstraZeneca on the 5th November. Thanks goes to Matthew Johnson (GSK) and Brett Cooper (Merck) for providing the report and to Talbir Austin (AZ) for the photograph. For those interested in Residual Stress measurements using XRD, the University of Manchester is organising a meeting on the 24th Feb. See page 9 for more information.

The programme for the BCA Spring Meeting at Loughborough University is now in place. The Industrial Group has organised a number of sessions covering both XRD and XRF. The IG session contents are shown on pages 6 to 8. Further information about the Spring Meeting can be found on the BCA web-site and the Industrial Group's web-site at: http://ig.crystallography.org.uk/ig.htm

Enclosed with the paper version of the Newsletter you will find an A5 promotional leaflet for the industrial Group. The IG committee would like to encourage new members to join the Group in 2009. Could you please display the leaflet on a suitable notice board at your place of work. Feel free to photocopy it so that more people can be reached.

Sad Loss
In September, we heard the sad news that Dr Andy Parkin, from the University of Glasgow, had passed away following a short illness. He was one of the founder members of the Young Crystallographers' group and was extremely active within the BCA. His enthusiasm for crystallography and his gentle sense of humour will be very sadly missed. it is tragic that he was taken at such a young age. Our thoughts continue to be with his wife and family.
Editors note: Andy won the IG poster prize in 2006 See here for details.

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Mark Farnworth - Pilkington Group Limited, Editor