AUC Board Elections – 2027

Sarah E. J. Bowman

Statement

I am an Associate Professor (tenured) in the Department of Biochemistry at the University at Buffalo (UB) and the Director of the National Crystallization Center (NCC), an NIH National Resource for the structural biology community. Investigating protein structure has been a major focus of my research career. During my PhD at University of Rochester, I used NMR and spectroscopic methods to interrogate metalloprotein active sites. As a postdoc at MIT, I trained in X-ray crystallography and MD simulations, falling in love with structural techniques and beginning my journey as a structural biologist. I started my independent position in 2017 at HWI, which was acquired by UB in January 2025, at which time I joined the Department of Biochemistry.

Over the last decade, I have been actively engaged in service in the scientific community in several ways. I have been involved in the American Crystallographic Association (ACA), where I was proud to be elected fellow in 2024. In the ACA, I have been Chair of the BioMac SIG, organized sessions, workshops, and a SciArt Show, and am an elected member of the Meeting Committee (2024-2027). At the 2026 IUCr Congress and General Assembly, I organized a workshop, co-chaired a microsymposium, and served as a U.S. delegate. I am Past-Chair of the SSRL User Executive Committee. I have served as reviewer for the DOE, NIH, NSF, Diamond Light Source (UK), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and NIGMS Council for Mature Synchrotron Resources. I am a current member of the AUC, where I participate on the Finance Subcommittee and co-chair the Public Relations Subcommittee.

I believe strongly in using outreach to increase participation in structural science and have worked to bring exposure to structural studies to a broad audience, from the public to students to established scientists. My service in the community has afforded many opportunities to advocate for structural science. I believe that the next several years will be crucial for establishing secure financial footing for the AUC and for developing a strategy for the AUC in advancing structural science in the US. The AUC is in a period of tremendous growth; I would be thrilled to be a part of the leadership team creating a strategic vision for the future of the AUC in the US and international structural science community. I am honored to stand as a candidate for election as AUC Vice-Chair.

Diana Tomchick

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7529-4643

IUCr Commission on Biological Macromolecules (member, 2017 – August 2026; consultant, August 2026 – present)

Member, International Program Committee, 26th IUCr Congress and General Assembly, Melbourne Australia (2021-2023)

Member, Bid Committee, 27th IUCr Congress and General Assembly, Calgary Canada (2021)

Past President, American Crystallographic Association (2023)

President, American Crystallographic Association (2022)

Vice President, American Crystallographic Association (2021)

Secretary, American Crystallographic Association (2015 – 2020)

Member, U.S. National Committee on Crystallography (2021 – 2022)

Statement

I am the Director of the Structural Biology Laboratory (SBL) at UT Southwestern Medical Center, a campus-wide core facility that provides expertise, assistance and education in all matters pertaining to X-ray crystallographic and Cryo-EM structure determination. I will be retiring from this position at the end of January 2027 but will remain as an Adjunct Professor at UT Southwestern and involved in the crystallographic/structural science community in the future.

I began my career as an inorganic small molecule crystallographer in graduate school, during which time I attended the 14th IUCr Congress in Perth Australia in 1987. After receiving my Ph.D., I became a protein crystallographer and attended an additional nine IUCr Congresses. I have been involved first-hand in three decades of remarkable technological and scientific progress in the imaging of biological macromolecules. I know how important it is for scientific societies to keep pace with the rapidly evolving state of the art. In 2017, I successfully campaigned to include a Cryo-EM Scientific Interest Group (SIG) in the American Crystallographic Association (ACA). I supported the establishment of the ACA’s MicroED SIG in 2022 and have been a voice in support of Cryo-EM involvement in the IUCr Commission on Biological Macromolecules.

Through the diligent efforts of many individuals, the ACA and IUCr are well positioned to be a home for rapidly expanding and evolving disciplines like molecular imaging.

Structural science is critical to so many fields, from chemistry to biology to materials science, geology, physics and medicine. Promotion of structural science at the national and international level by the AUC is best achieved not only by sending well-informed and enthusiastic delegates to the IUCr Congress every 3 years, but also by supporting and providing educational opportunities for early career as well as established scientists.

Organizations such as the AUC will need to keep abreast of the rapid pace of scientific and technical advances in the structural sciences to best serve the structural science community at large.

Surajit Banerjee, Ph.D.

Head of Business Development, Helix BioStructures

I am a structural biologist with approximately 25 years of experience spanning small-molecule crystallography, including single-crystal and powder diffraction, macromolecular X-ray crystallography, NMR, and cryo-electron microscopy. My career has encompassed scientific research, facility leadership, technology development, education, and engagement across academic, national laboratory, and industrial communities. For more than a decade, I served as a staff scientist at the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) at the Advanced Photon Source, contributing to beamline development while supporting and training a broad national and international user community. I subsequently joined Columbia University, where I contributed to the development of cryo-EM capabilities and strengthened engagement with pharmaceutical and biotechnology researchers. I then spent nearly three years at Thermo Fisher Scientific, working with scientists and technical professionals across academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical research. My scientific work has resulted in more than 80 publications, including papers in Nature, Science, and Cell, as well as a patent.

Community service has been a consistent part of my career. I have trained researchers, helped establish and expand scientific capabilities, fostered collaborations across disciplines and institutions, and advocated for broader access to advanced structural biology technologies. I have organized symposia, conferences, and scientific sessions through organizations such as the ACA, ASBMB, and ACS, with successful engagement and fundraising with industrial sponsors. My experience across academia, a national laboratory, the instrumentation industry, and structural biology CROs has given me a broad perspective on the needs and opportunities of our community.

If elected to the AUC Board, I would work to strengthen the voice and impact of the U.S. structural science community within the IUCr. I would seek to build stronger connections among universities, national laboratories, industry, and international partners; expand opportunities for early-career scient