Origins of the named lectures
given at the BCA Easter meeting 1997 in Leeds

Moreton Moore has kindly delved into his archives and found some notes on origin of the Lonsdale Lecture and a paper written by Gordon Cox in 1985 on the history of the Bragg Lectures. The notes printed before each lecture are based on these papers.
There are three named lectures listed here:

Please send any further details or comments to the BCA Webmaster at [email protected]
Page last updated 16 October 1999

The Bragg Lectures

Following a meeting of the National Committee of Crystallography in November 1957, Gordon Cox discussed the idea of a memorial Bragg lecture with fellow committee members Kathleen Lonsdale and W.H.Taylor. Since 1962 was the centenary of the birth of W.H.Bragg and the jubilee of the discovery of X-ray diffraction by crystals it seemed a good year to begin the lectures. Kathleen Lonsdale donated her prize money from the award of the Davy Medal from the Royal Society, others followed and a small fund was created to provide an honorarium and travelling expenses for a lecture to be held every two or three years. The original idea was to hold the lectures for about 20 years, but Helen Megaw argued strongly that she saw no reason to limit the time. In 1960 the Royal Institution agreed to administer the fund in trust for the endowment of the Bragg lectures. The first public announcement of the lectures was made by Kathleen Lonsdale on 17th August 1960 following Lawrence Bragg's Congress Discourse on "The Growth in the Power of X-ray Analyses" at the IUCr in Cambridge.

Other information about the Braggs

John Robertson wrote an article about the Braggs in Leeds for Crystallography News March 1997
The UK Post Office issued a commemmorative postage stamp in 1997.

For further information on any aspect of the Bragg Lectures and their administration please contact the current Secretary of the Bragg Lecture Fund, Dr. Paul Raithby, Chemistry Department, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW email: [email protected].
updated November 1997

Bragg Lectures

No. Date
Lecturer - Places and topics
1 1962
P.P.Ewald - Leeds, and The Royal Institution (London)
2 1965
Kathleen Lonsdale - Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Australia
3 1968
Dorothy Hodgkin - Manchester
4 1970
B.E.Warren - The Royal Institution (London)
5 1973
R.W.G.Wyckoff - Cambridge
6 1981
H.Lipson - Leeds, and The Royal Institution (London)
W.L.Bragg - scientific revolutionary
7 1982
M.M.Woolfson - Manchester, Cambridge
Structural Crystallography in the 80s
8 1985
Sir David Phillips - Leeds, and The Royal Institution (London)
The Silver Jubilee of Successful Protein Crystallography
9 1987
B.W.Matthews - Perth and Adelaide, Australia
10 1993
Manchester, and The Royal Institution (London)
Two lecturers:
11 1994
A.M. Glazer - Newcastle-upon-Tyne Crystals Make Light Work
12 1996
K.C.Holmes - Cambridge Structural Biology of Macromolecules and the Development of X-Ray Diffraction
13 1997
D.W.J.Cruickshank - Leeds, and The Royal Institution (London) Gordon Cox and the Increasing Power of X-Ray Structure Analysis
14 1999
J.D.Dunitz Glasgow and Cambridge Polymorphism: the same but different

The Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture

This is given by the recipient of the Dorothy Hodgkin Prize which was set up by the BCA to commemorate Dorothy's great contribution to science in general and to crystallography in particular. It was first awarded in the year of her 80th birthday. The prize is awarded every three years by a sub-committee of the BCA Council. Eligibility is not subject to any restrictions of age, nationality, past or present places of work. The prize money comes from the interest on donations to the 'Dorothy Hodgkin Prize Fund' administered by the BCA. Further donations to the fund are welcome at any time, please contact the BCA Treasurer for information, or make a donation when you pay your BCA membership fee.

Dorothy Hodgkin Prize Winners and Lecturers

The Kathleen Lonsdale Lecture

In 1985 the Bragg Lecture Fund Committee considered whether they should organize a memorial lecture for Kathleen Lonsdale. They decided it would be inappropriate for them to do it; instead they recommended that the British Crystallographic Association approach the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) about a possible annual Lonsdale Lecture, at which young people would hear about crystallography. These were held for a few years, but attracted a very small audience. The BCA Council therefore decided to move the Lonsdale lecture to take place during the BCA Annual Meeting.

Lonsdale lectures

The September 1986 issue of 'Crystallography News' page 5 reported that the BCA Council had decided to inaugurate a series of annual lectures to commemmorate the work of the late Dame Kathleen Lonsdale. The December 1987 issue on page 7 records that the 1st Lonsdale lecture was given by our BCA President David Blow. Can anyone help fill in the dates, places, lecturers, topics of any of these lectures? All information will be gratefuly received by the BCA Webmaster at [email protected]
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