Herbert J. Bernstein, Professor of Computer Science
Dowling College, Kramer Science Center, KSC 121
Idle Hour Blvd, Oakdale NY 11769 USA

Dear Herb,

I am happy to confirm my commitment to participating in your upcoming proposal to develop methods for Management of Experimental Data in Structural Biology (MEDSBIO). As a long-time developer of crystallographic data processing software and as a participant in the 1997 effort to establish ImgCIF, I have been conscious for decades of the need for coherent and transmittable standards for the heterogeneous body of raw data that are generated in structural biology. As a current member of the American Crystallographic Association's Data Standards and Computing Committee, I see the MEDSBIO effort as highly consonant the ACA's data-management interests. Finally, as director of the ACA's annual Summer School in Macromolecular Crystallography and as a teacher and mentor of IIT's own structural-biology students, I am hoping that the next generation of structural biologists will have an easier time of sharing their data with one another than our generation does.

I would look forward to participating in decision-making regarding the interoperations between ImgCIF and NeXus, and in writing and organizing code and documentation for the MEDSBIO effort. I also look forward to working with the talented and committed group of collaborators that you have recruited; I'm humbled to be numbered among this group. I wish you well in launching this project, and look forward to getting further involved in it.