From: Cohen, Aina E.
Sent: Fri 8/29/2008 1:04 PM
To: Smith, Clyde
Subject: FW: Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference - 2008

Dear Colleague: 

On behalf of the program committee, you and your colleagues are cordially 
invited to join us for the 66th Annual Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference to be 
held from October 30th - November 1st, 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 
the Holiday Inn University Center.

The goal of the conference is to bring together researchers in all areas of 
fundamental and applied diffraction and crystallographic research to present 
current topics. The program of the 2008 conference includes diffraction 
phasing, structure refinement and validation, synchrotron data collection, 
environmental science, materials science, chemistry and combined methods for 
structural biology research including NMR, Cryo-EM, EXAFS, SAXS and Raman 
spectroscopy.  

Conference speakers include:
Sandy Asher, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh 
Pavel Afonine, The Berkeley Center for Structural Biology, LBNL 
Guillermo Calero, Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh 
Tom Caradoc-Davies, Protein Crystallography, Australian Synchrotron 
Paul Carey, Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University
Yu-Sheng Chen, Microcrystallography, ChemMatCARS, APS
James Conway, Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh
Bryan Craven, Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania 
Angela Gronenborn, Department of Structural Biology, University of Pittsburgh
Bill Furey, Biocrystallography, VA Medical Center, University of Pittsburgh 
Roger Hendrix, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Christian Jelsch, LCM3B, Nancy University, France
Patrick Loria, Biophysical & Physical Chemistry, Yale University
Jianpeng Ma, Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine
Kanagalaghatta Rajashankar, NE-CAT, APS / Cornell University 
Kaustubh Sinha, Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University 
John Rose, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia 
Nathaniel Rosi, Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh
Glenn Waychunas, Molecular Geochemistry & Nanoscience Group, LBNL 
Hui Wu, NIST Center for Neutron Research
Junko Yano, Physical Biosciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

For more information about the conference program please visit the 
conference website: http://www.pittdifsoc.org/PDC_2008/schedule.htm 
<http://www.pittdifsoc.org/PDC_2008/schedule.htm> .

Poster sessions and social events, included in the program, provide many 
opportunities for formal and informal discussions with the speakers. The Chung 
Soo Yoo Award will be given to graduate students for best poster 
presentation.  To insure maximum participation, the cost of attending the 
conference has been kept to a minimum.

The conference will be preceded by a workshop for researchers intrigued by or 
new to crystallography titled, ‘Crystallography Made Easy through Automation’ 
on October 29th at the University of Pittsburgh, Structural Biology 
Department. This workshop will introduce what structural information 
crystallography can provide, the basics of crystallographic techniques (protein 
crystallization, x-ray diffraction data collection, and data analysis) and then 
demonstrate how these steps may be simplified by taking advantage of the 
automated facilities available at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory 
and the Hauptman Woodward Medical Research Institute. The workshop is 
open to 24 participants  and advanced registration is required.  For more 
information and to register, please visit the workshop website:  

http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/crystallography <http://www-
conf.slac.stanford.edu/crystallography> .

Discounted accommodations for the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference and 
workshop attendees are available at the Holiday Inn University Center. The 
Holiday Inn is holding rooms at this discounted rate until October 8th.   

For additional information and instructions, please view our website at:  
http://www.pittdifsoc.org/PDC_2008/ 
<http://www.pittdifsoc.org/PDC_2008/>  or if you have any questions, please 
feel free to contact me directly.

We look forward to seeing you in Pittsburgh! 

Sincerely yours, 

Aina Cohen
President-elect 
Pittsburgh Diffraction Society

and Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference Session Organizers:

Julian Adams, Paul Adams, James Conway, Steve Geib, Ana Gonzalez, Mark 
Macbeth, Apurva Mehta, Edward Snell, and Andy Vandenmark