History of the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography (CNCC)
Early history of the CNCC
Canada was the third nation to join the IUCr where
Dr William Howard Barnes (1903-1980) (pictured below) played a major role in persuading
the National Research Council in 1948 to adhere to the IUCr for Canada.
Dr Barnes was also chair of the Canadian National Committee for
Crystallography from 1948 until 1966. (Acta Cryst, 1981, A37, 269)
 .
Dr William Howard Barnes (1903-1980)
Via the CNCC, IUCr Congresses were held in Canada in Montréal (1957) and Ottawa (1981).
The decision making behind holding the 1957 IUCr Congress in Montréal is described in
H. Kamminga's article "The International Union of Crystallography: its formation and early development"
(Acta Cryst. (1989). A45, 581-601):
No international organization, regardless of its ideals, can avoid
altogether problems of a political nature. To be sure, the IUCr has always
vigorously supported the aims of international collaboration in science
and free circulation of scientists. Already very early in its history it
had occasion to speak out on this matter when Jean Wyart, one of the
Union's officers, was refused a US visa by the American Consul in Paris
and could not, therefore, attend the 1948 Congress at Harvard
University. The IUCr took up the matter with the National Research
Council and the US Government, but the reason for the refusal was never
revealed to the Union. This case caused the US crystallographic
community considerable embarrassment which, many years later, led the US
National Committee to propose Canada, rather than the USA, as the
preferred North American venue for the Fourth General Assembly in 1957
(see Evans, 1983). The Assembly was held in Montreal, with financial and
organizational support from both the US and the Canadian National
Committees. The Union did not meet again in the USA until 1969, when the
Eighth General Assembly was held in Stony Brook, New York.
- Biographical information on of Lauriston (Larry) Derwent Calvert (1924 - 1993):
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