Crystallography and the Gregori Aminoff Prize in the International Year of Crystallography

On 31st March 2014, the Gregori Aminoff Prize was awarded to Professor Yigong Shi at the Concert House in Stockholm by HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf. This occasion was noteworthy, not only as the 275th anniversary of the year in which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was founded, but also as a year of consequence for the Gregori Aminoff Prize, an award presented annually for a documented contribution in the field of crystallography made by an individual or, on occasion, by individuals.

The current year, 2014, has been designated the 'International Year of Crystallography' and will be marked in Physica Scripta by a series of publications celebrating the diversity of crystallography and the achievements that have been made through the application of crystallographic techniques. A considerable number of Aminoff Prize winners have kindly agreed to contribute a personal account of their research achievements.

Explanatory accounts of the use of crystallography in a wide range of subjects have been requested and will be published to ensure that the power of crystallography as a tool in a variety of fields, including those in which we are not active, is made apparent to us all. The intention is to provide a complete background for teachers and lecturers to enable them and their students to see how the subject developed and how the techniques are applied in other fields within the context of the Aminoff Prize.

All of the aforementioned publications, overviews, historical accounts and biographical and autobiographical articles will appear in regular issues of the journal, whereupon the published papers will be gathered together here to form a virtual issue. For completeness, we have also included our first personal accounts by Gregori Aminoff Prize winners, those of Professors Gatti and Spackman, who received the award in 2013.