Allen Oliver, Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected Vice President of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA). His three-year term begins January 1, 2023.
The ACA is the premier organization for structural scientists in North America. It works to advance, promote, and preserve the discipline of crystallography to benefit humankind. Though based in North America, the ACA also has a large international membership. The ACA has significant standing in the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), publisher of the Acta Crystallographica family of journals, and part of the responsibility of the ACA during Allen’s term will be to prepare for the joint ACA/IUCr Congress which will take place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2025.
Allen has been a member of the ACA for over twenty years, and he has always sought to be a positive, active member of the association. He has served as an officer on various Scientific Interest Groups and Standing Committees, been a session and program chair, and even had his wedding celebration at an ACA conference. Allen remembers fondly a quote from Sir Fraser Stoddart, Nobel Laureate and plenary lecturer for that conference, “A wedding, at a scientific conference? This has to be a first, ever!” When asked about his goals as Vice President, Allen said: “I especially look forward to growing the society and encouraging new, younger crystallographers and researchers to join the association, to share in the camaraderie and very welcoming and collegial nature of the ACA. The ACA is more than a scientific society, it is a family.”
Allen joined the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry in 2008. He currently serves as the principle investigator in charge of the Notre Dame Molecular Structure Facility. Allen regularly collaborates with scientists at Notre Dame and at universities across the globe and is an author on more than 275 publications. Allen also serves on the editorial board for Acta Crystallographica C.
Originally published by at chemistry.nd.edu on December 08, 2022.