European Crystallography Meeting delegates raise money for Cancer Research UK

The Woodlands, TX. October 1, 2013.

Cycling enthusiasts at the 28th European Crystallography Meeting (ECM) have used the occasion to raise money for Cancer Research. The ECMs are the general meetings of the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) and ECM28 was held in the UK at the University of Warwick from 25-29 August 2013. At the meeting, crystallographers and researchers with interests in crystallography and crystal growth met to share their scientific views and new achievements.

Rigaku Corporation was a proud corporate sponsor of the ECM, and organized an initiative to raise money for a chosen charity, Cancer Research UK. For the event, stationary exercise bikes were used to cycle the 1376km straight-line distance from Warwick, UK to the location of the next ECM in Rovinj, Croatia in 2015. Teams from Rigaku UK and Rigaku Europe SE in Germany attended the event, representing both materials and protein crystallography. For every kilometer cycled, Rigaku donated £1 and prizes were given to those who pedaled the most distance. At the conference, 66 ECM delegates participated and raised a total of £1376 for Cancer Research UK.

“To be perfectly honest, we hadn’t realized how popular and competitive the bikes would be and doubted that we would succeed in completing the distance required to reach the distant shores of Croatia. However, fierce efforts by the group at Southampton, got us on our way very quickly. Word got round, and soon everyone wanted a shot at outdoing their contemporaries,” commented Dr. Mark Benson who originated the idea.

Among the top cyclists were Fabiola Sanjuan-Szkiorz and Slawomir Domagala from the University of Warsaw with 100km each and Prof. William Clegg from the University of Newcastle with 88km pedaled.

The 29th European Crystallography Meeting will be held in Rovinj, Croatia from August 23–28, 2015.

About Rigaku

Since its inception in Japan in 1951, Rigaku has been at the forefront of analytical and industrial instrumentation technology. Rigaku and its subsidiaries form a global group focused on life sciences and general purpose analytical instrumentation. With hundreds of major innovations to its credit, Rigaku and its subsidiary companies are world leaders in the fields of small molecule and protein crystallography, X-ray spectrometry and diffraction, X-ray optics, as well as semiconductor metrology. Rigaku employs over 1,100 people in the manufacture and support of its analytical equipment. Its products are in use in more than 70 countries – supporting research, development, and quality assurance activities. Throughout the world, Rigaku continuously promotes partnerships, dialog, and innovation within the global scientific and industrial community.

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