2022 McMurdie Award – Earle Ryba**, Pennsylvania State University

ICDD® awarded the 2022 McMurdie Award to Professor Earle Ryba of Pennsylvania State University for his dedicated contributions to improving the quality of the Metals and Alloys Subfile, and for educating users of the Powder Diffraction File™ at ICDD Clinics.

Earle has been an active Metals and Alloys (M&A) Working Task Group and M&A subcommittee member. He has contributed immensely in editing, standardizing, and classifying M&A entries based on structure prototypes. Earle’s extensive experience and meticulous editorial review greatly contribute to the impeccable quality of the Powder Diffraction File.

Beyond M&A editorial tasks, Earle is an asset to ICDD’s educational activities as an XRD Clinic Instructor. He has volunteered his time and knowledge to ICDD’s clinics for over 30 years and lectures at both the beginner and advanced levels. His wisdom and good nature bring indispensable talent to the XRD Clinics.

**With great sadness, ICDD conveys the passing of Earle Ryba on June 2, 2023.

2020 McMurdie Award – James Kaduk

With great pleasure, ICDD® awarded the 2020 McMurdie Award to Dr. James Kaduk of Poly Crystallography, Inc. For over 32 years, Jim has contributed to the quality, content, coverage, and usefulness of the Powder Diffraction File™, including both organic and inorganic entries. His contributions total more than 1000 Powder Difffraction File™ (PDF®) entries. In addition, the quality of the PDF has been enhanced due to Jim’s expertise in editing patterns in the database.

Since becoming a member in 1988, Jim has shared his knowledge, expertise, and time with the ICDD in various capacities. For his sustained meritorious service, he was honored in 2001, by being named as an ICDD Fellow and in 2010, he was honored as an ICDD Distinguished Fellow. For lifetime achievement in advancing the use of X-rays for materials analysis, Jim was awarded the 2017 Jenkins Award.  He also served on the Board of Directors as Director-at-Large from 1990-1994 and 1996-2000, as Technical Chair from 2000-2004, as Chair from 2004-2008, and is currently ICDD’s Treasurer.

In addition to his role as President and Principal Scientist of Poly Crystallography Inc., Jim is also an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the Illinois Institute of Technology and North Central College.

2020 McMurdie Award – Peter J. Zavalij

ICDD® is pleased to announce that Dr. Peter Zavalij has been selected as a 2020 McMurdie Award recipient. Peter is being recognized for his work on the ICDD Ceramics Subcommittee and related Materials Task Groups which spans over 15 years. His current activity is in the area of battery materials, where he serves as Task Group Chair. Through his subcommittee work, Peter has encouraged other task groups to provide patterns as well as physical property sheets to the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF®), resulting in the growth of the inorganic portion of the File.

Peter became an ICDD member in 1999. In addition to his work on the Ceramics Subcommittee, Peter also serves as a Contributing Editor of the PDF, and was recognized in 2006 as an ICDD Fellow. Overall, he has contributed over 120 powder patterns to the PDF.

Peter currently serves as the Director of the X-ray Diffraction Laboratory of the Chemistry Department at the University of Maryland where he is in charge of both single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction laboratories. His immense contributions expand beyond the PDF to the diffraction community as a whole. He is co-author of the textbook: “Fundamentals of Powder Diffraction and Structural Characterization of Materials”; co-author of the software “Crystal Structure Determination;” author of approximately 380 publications; and instructor and lecturer for numerous worldwide X-ray crystallography workshops.

2018 McMurdie Award – Susan Quick

With great pleasure, ICDD awarded the 2018 McMurdie Award to Dr. Susan Quick of The Pennsylvania State University. Sue was recognized for her many distinguished contributions for over 25 years to the quality, content, coverage, and usefulness of the Powder Diffraction File™, in particular the Zeolite Subfile.

Since becoming a member in 1991, Sue has contributed to the ICDD in various ways. For her sustained meritorious service, she was honored in 2002 by being named as a Fellow. She currently chairs the Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Committee, a role she’s held since 2009. Most notably, Sue was instrumental in setting up the XRD Clinics, initially at Penn State, and then at ICDD. She has participated as an instructor for nearly 30 years and still continues to teach at the clinics today!

2016 McMurdie Award – Ann Sabina

The 2016 McMurdie Award was given posthumously to Ann Sabina, formerly of the Geological Survey of Canada, to recognize her many distinguished contributions to the quality, content, coverage, and usefulness of the Minerals Subfile of the Powder Diffraction File. As a volunteer, Ann spent nearly five decades working as a member of the ICDD Minerals Task Group, dedicated to improving the quality and uniqueness of the Minerals Subfile. In March 2015, the McMurdie Award Selection Committee chose Ann as the 2016 recipient; friend and colleague, Andy Roberts (Emeritus – Geological Survey of Canada), had the honor of informing Ann in June about the award. Ann was quite surprised and was looking forward to attending the ICDD Meeting of Members in March to accept it. However, she fell ill and passed away in September after a very brief illness.

Ann will be remembered for her dedication to mineralogy and gemology. She began her career at the Geological Survey of Canada in 1952 in the X-ray diffraction field. She was the author of the very popular series “Rocks and Minerals for the Collector”; co-founder of the Canadian Gemmological Association; and, a long-serving Treasurer for the Mineralogical Association of Canada.

Andy Roberts accepted the award on behalf of Ann’s family at the ICDD Meeting of Members.

2014 McMurdie Award – Evgeny Antipov

This award is given to recognize distinguished work, which improves the Powder Diffraction File™ in its purpose of identifying and characterizing materials. This year, the 2014 McMurdie Award was given to Dr. Evgeny Antipov, Moscow State University. Dr. Antipov was recognized for his many significant contributions over the last two decades to the quality, content, coverage, and usefulness of the Powder Diffraction File™, in particular, the Ceramics Subfile. In addition, his renowned role as an ICDD Ambassador to the Eastern European community has been instrumental in fostering collaborations and advancing the XRD discipline. In this role, Dr. Antipov promoted the Powder Diffraction File™ and ICDD organization as a whole, through educational workshops and the Grant-in-Aid Program.

In 2012, the ICDD was happy to award a member with the McMurdie Award, which is given biennially, to Andrew Roberts, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Over the years, Andrew Roberts has actively participated in both the Minerals and Metals and Alloys Task Groups. For 30 years, Andy has served as a subject expert in Mineral nomenclature and location. Andy meticulously reviews each mineral name and location for all calculated patterns, specifically entries from our collaborations with ICSD and LPF. Each year, Andy also reviews newly published mineral entries. His contributions have increased both the quality and uniqueness of the Powder Diffraction File. As a member of the Metals and Alloys Task Group, Andy participates in the Pearson Structure Code review, and structure prototype assignment.

Roy Garvey, Shao-Fan Lin and Harry Thielke were this year’s recipients for the McMurdie Award. Through this award, all three gentlemen were commended for their continuous contributions to the content and quality of the Organic Powder Diffraction File™. The award is named in honor of Howard McMurdie and is given every two years to recognize distinguished work, which improves the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF)® in its purpose of identifying and characterizing materials. Dr. Garvey received his award at the Annual Meeting, while Dr. Lin will receive his award at a future meeting in China. Mr. Thielke’s award was given posthumously to recognize his lifetime of contributions.

The International Centre for Diffraction Data is pleased to announce that long-time ICDD member, Jeffrey Dann of Global Tungsten & Powders, (formerly OSRAM Sylvania), Towanda, PA, was named as the 2008 McMurdie Award Recipient at the ICDD Annual Meeting of Members, held 13 March 2008. However, the award itself was recently was presented at the Plenary Session of the 57th Annual Denver X-ray Conference, held in Denver, Colorado. Named in honor of Howard McMurdie, the award was established to recognize distinguished work which improves the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF) in its purpose of identifying and characterizing inorganic solids.

Jeff was recognized for his many distinguished contributions, over the past three decades, to the quality, content, coverage and usefulness of the Inorganic Powder Diffraction File™, in particular, the Metals and Alloys Subfile. Since 1976, Jeff has been an active participant of the Metals & Alloys Subcommittee and Task Team, serving as Chairman of the subcommittee for six years. In pursuing greater coverage of materials in the PDF, he also served as Chairman of the Target Systems Subcommittee. This subcommittee was responsible for identifying materials missing from the PDF and making recommendations to the Grant-in-Aid Committee to promote proposals focusing on these missing phases. Other ICDD activities include serving as Member-at-Large of the Board of Directors, and as an active member of the Ceramics, Database, Diffraction Methods, Editorial, and Organic Subcommittees.

We express our congratulations to Jeff on receiving this prestigious award and our sincere appreciation for his relentless efforts in structuring the PDF as a useful and comprehensive tool for the international scientific community. We also thank Global Tungsten & Powders for their cooperation in supporting Jeff’s ICDD endeavors.