Professor Sydney R. Hall, Head of School School of Biomedical and Chemical Sciences University of Western Australia .
Brief CV:
Career: 1993-2001 Director, Crystallography Centre, UWA.1997-1998
Acting Executive Dean of Science, UWA. 1998-2001 Deputy Executive
Dean of Science, UWA. 1998-2001 Director, Microscopy & Microanalysis,
UWA and of WACRIM. 2001-2004 School Head, Biomedical & Chemical
Sciences, UWA. Elected board member of the UWA Institute of
Advanced Studies (2000-), Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (2002-), and
Academic Council (2003). Member of the Australian Synchrotron Research
Program board (2002-) and the National Scientific Advisory Committee
for the Australian Synchrotron Program (2002-3).
Professional: 1972-74 American Crystallographic Assn. Computing Committee (Chair 1974); 1972-75 Executive of the Canadian Research Scientist Professional Union; 1975-84 IUCr Computing Commission (Chair 1981-84); 1983 Program Chair, IUCr Computing School, Kyoto, Japan; 1983-88 Executive of Society of Crystallographers in Australia (President 1985-87); 1985-91 Member, National Crystallography Com., Australian Academy of Sciences; 1987-90 Founding President, Asian Crystallographic Association (AsCA); 1987-93 AsCA Councillor; 1990-92 Chair, Organising Committee AsCA92 Conference, Singapore; 1990- AsCA Trustee; 1990- Trustee, Society for Crystallographers in Australia; 1990-93 Co-editor, Acta Crystallographica; 1990-96 Member, IUCr Data Commission; 1990-99 Member, IUCr Commission on Journals; 1992- Member, IUCr Committee on CIF Standards; 1993-1999 Editor, Acta Crystallographica Section C; 1993- Member, IUCr Nomenclature Commission; 1993- Member, IUCr Commission on International Tables; 1996 Chair & Organiser, CIF Workshop, IUCr XVII Congress, Seattle, USA; 1996- Member, IUCr Database Committee; 1996- Member, IUCr Promotions Committee; 1996- Member IUCr Committee for CIF Standards; 2002-3 Chair, Organising Committee AsCA03/Crystal-23 Conference, Broome.
Brief summary of expertise and significant research achievements:
Designer and developer of the Self-defining Text Archive & Retrieval
(STAR) File approach for exchanging and archiving data. Registered as
Inventor in the UK Patent GB 2243467B of the STAR File handling process.
This approach is used widely in the structural sciences for representing
and handling scientific data. Co-developer of the Crystallographic Information
File (CIF) format, a discipline-specific adaption of the STAR File approach,
which has been adopted by the International Union for Crystallography as
the text/data exchange mechanism for data bases and journals. It is now
the data standard for the publication submission to all crystal structure
journals in the discipline, and is used by the Cambridge Crystallographic
Data Centre, the International Centre for Diffraction Data, and the Protein
Data Bank as their standard data entry format.
Developer of over 60 major software applications on topics ranging from crystallographic phase determination to computer graphics, electronic parsers to data dictionaries. These are used in disciplines employing X-ray, electron, neutron and powder diffraction techniques, and in other areas of structural science.
Joint Editor of Volume G:"Crystallographic Information" in the IUCr sponsored International Tables for Crystallography series. Co-Editor of several Conference Proceedings books.
Past Editor (1993-99) of Acta Crystallographica Section C "Crystal Structure Communications", the premier structural communication journal in the discipline. Was responsible for the redesign of the journal format and editorial procedures, and for the development of its current electronic submission and delivery processes.
International linkages:
Prof Helen Berman, Director, Protein Data Bank, Rutgers University NJ, USA.
Dr John Westbrook, Protein Data Bank, Rutgers University NJ, USA.
Prof Gerhard Raabe, Chemie, Technischehochschule, Aachen, Germany.
Prof Sine Larsen, Research Director, Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France.
Prof David Brown, Material Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Students and postdocs likely to be involved in or use
the Network:
Dr Brian Skelton
Dr Jackie Wilce
Dr Andy Rogers
Website:
http://www.biomedchem.uwa.edu.au/home/HOS/hall.html
Relevant grants:
| 2003-2005 | "Intelligent Ontologies: The Genesis of Data Interoperability in the Life Sciences" |
Relevant publications:
Hall, S.R. "The STAR File: "A New Format for Electronic Data Transfer
and Archiving." 1991 J Chemical Information and Computer Science, 31, 326-333.
Hall, S.R., Allen, F.H. & Brown, I.D. "The Crystallographic Information
File (CIF): A New Standard Archive File for Crystallography." 1991
Acta Crystallographica, A47, 655-685.
Hall, S.R. & Cook, A.P.F. "STAR Data Definition Language: Initial
Specification." 1995 J Chemical Information and Computer Science, 35,
819-825.
Hall, S.R. & Spadaccini, N. "The STAR File: Detailed Specifications."
1994 J Chemical Information and Computer Science, 34, 505-508.
Spadaccini, N., Hall, S.R. & Castleden, I.R. "Relational Expressions in
STAR File Dictionaries." 2000 J Chemical Information and Computer Science,
40, 1289-1301.
Westbrook, J.D. & Hall, S.R. "A Dictionary Description Language for
Macromolecular Structure." 1995 Draft DDL V2.1.1
ndbserver.rutgers.edu/mmcif/ddl
