ECM28 Opening Ceremony
The ECM28 Opening Ceremony will take place in the Butterworth Hall of the Arts Centre at the University of Warwick, beginning at 18:00 on Sunday 25th August 2013. It will be chaired by the ECA President, Professor Andreas Roodt, and will feature a welcome from the following honoured guests:
Sir Richard Lambert Chancellor of the University of Warwick
Sir Mark Walport Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government
Professor Samar Hasnain Editor-in-Chief of IUCr Journals
Professor David Keen President of the British Crystallographic Association
The Opening Ceremony will conclude with a musical recital by the Quasi-Crystallites, a Brass Quintet composed of students currently studying various subjects at the University of Warwick.
Immediately following the Opening Ceremony the Vice-President of the ECA, Professor Alessia Bacchi will chair the 7th Max Perutz Lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Randy Read.
The Commercial Exhibition will then be declared open and the Opening Reception will begin.
7th Max Perutz Prize Lecture
The European Crystallographic Association has awarded the seventh Max Perutz Prize to:
Professor Randy J. Read
for his contribution to the development and application of advanced statistical approaches to all stages of protein structure solution.
The Seventh Max Perutz Prize of the European Crystallographic Association Prize goes to Professor Randy J. Read from the Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, UK.
Randy Read is recognised his major contribution in the development and application of statistical methods for the calculation of crystallographic Fourier maps, and maximum likelihood methods and their impact on phasing, benefitting many laboratories in the world working with structures of macromolecules. In addition to the development of outstanding crystallographic methods, he has been studying medically relevant proteins, particularly those for which the structure may be useful in the development of new therapies.
About Max Perutz
Max Ferdinand Perutz was born in Vienna on May 19th, 1914. After attending a course on organic biochemistry, given by F. von Wessely, in which Sir F.G. Hopkins’ work at Cambridge was mentioned, Perutz decided that Cambridge was the place where he wanted to work for his Ph.D. thesis. He became a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge under J.D. Bernal in September 1936. This move would lead to him becoming a pioneer in the new field of molecular biology, co-founding a world-class research laboratory and developing a technique to unlock the structures of proteins.
In October 1947, he was made head of the newly constituted Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit for Molecular Biology, at which time J.C. Kendrew represented its entire staff. He continued holding this post until in March 1962 he was made Chairman of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. His collaboration with Sir Lawrence Bragg continued throughout these years.
He shared the 1962 Nobel Prise in Chemistry with John Kendrew for his structure of haemoglobin.
Max Perutz officially retired as Chairman of the LMB in 1979, having overseen the development of the MRC Unit into a first class research laboratory. He died in Cambridge on 6 February 2002, aged 87.
This ECA Prize lecture is named in honour of him.
