THE HISTORY OF THE IUCr

Durward Cruickshank

Chemistry Department, UMIST, Manchester M60 1QD, UK
dwj_cruickshank@email.msn.com

This year sees the 50^th anniversary of the first General Assembly and Congress of the IUCr held at Harvard University 28 July - 3 August 1948. Thanks to the work of committees set up at an international gathering of crystallographers in London in July 1946, the Union was already a going concern. Draft Statutes and By-Laws had been submitted to the International Council of Scientific Unions, and on 7 April 1947 ICSU admitted the IUCr. The first issue of Acta Crystallographica had already appeared in April 1948 and preparations for International Tables were in hand. The prehistory of the Union can be traced back to 1929.

Since 1948 the activities of the Union have grown enormously, as has the range of the science of crystallography. The 1997 World Directory of Crystallographers lists 7959 names from 74 countries. Total sales of the space-group volumes of International Tables exceed 20000. The several journals now publish more than 7000 pages annually. Many famous papers have been published in IUCr journals or presented at IUCr meetings. The volumes of Structure Reports summarised practically all structures published between 1940 and 1985 (to 1990 for metals and inorganic structures). However the very successful publication programme of the Union has often brought financial problems. Subscriptions to Acta reached a peak in 1967 and have declined ever since. The Union has become heavily involved in new electronic publishing methods. The past 50 years have not been without difficulties and controversies.

Remarks will be made about the organisational and legal structure of the Union. The Union is incorporated in Geneva. The members of the Union are the Adhering Bodies for each country. The work of the Union is directed by the triennial General Assemblies. This work has been carried forward, through the Union's Officers and Commissions, by numerous very dedicated individuals. Time will allow only some of these to be named. At the General Assembly in Moscow in 1966 the President, Kathleen Lonsdale, said that more than any other one man she considered Professor Paul Ewald as the founder of the Union. Much detail about the formation and early development of the IUCr will be found in an article by Harmke Kamminga, Acta Cryst. (1989), A45, 581-601.