The ACA Newsletter, a.k.a. RefleXions, is a mainstay of communications in the structural sciences community and holds a special place among social media platforms and other background noise. It has evolved since its inception by the esteemed Dr. Jenny Glusker in the 1960’s, including moving from print editions to a digital only format. The latter was spearheaded by previous editor Dr. Paul Swepston and is noted to have saved the society large sums by circumventing printing and mailing charges.

Recently (mid-2025), Paul stepped back from his editorial role to fully embrace retirement. This triggered a further evolution to the current form – an email-based newsletter from sender [email protected] and are available at: https://acas.memberclicks.net/aca-reflexions ). As ACA embraces new communication tools, the website also features a blog with timely news and updates (at https://acas.memberclicks.net/acablog).

Communications Committee members recently chatted with Paul about his involvement and experiences with the ACA and the newsletter. He has a very congenial and warmly candid nature and shared more than can fit in this short column. A recurring theme during our discussion was the role of the ACA newsletter as a means of communication and reinforcing our community connections. Of course, we can’t forget previous editors including Dr. Connie Chidester, Dr. Thomas Koetzle, and the beloved Dr. Judith Flippen-Anderson, who served for almost two decades in this role. Upon her passing in 2018, Dr. Swepston came on board as co-editor with Dr. Ed Stevens, although he also passed shortly thereafter leaving the buck squarely stopped with Dr. Swepston. This serves as a tangible reminder that our society was built, and is maintained, by the members, and through our actions we can ensure that it meets our needs while also honoring our rich professional history together.

Paul’s involvement with RefleXions appeared to arrive through the normal routes of society tasks – that is, proverbial “arm twisting”. The request came from a pillar of ACA and Rigaku employee, Dr. Joe Ferrara. Initially, Dr. Swepston says he resisted, but he notes that “in all the years they worked together, Joe was the only employee that didn’t ask him for anything” – certainly ACA is grateful to Dr. Ferrara for many reasons, including this act of recruitment!

Paul built his career at Rigaku and served as Senior Vice President of Rigaku Corporation from 2006 – 2017 after serving as the CEO of Rigaku Americas Corporation for the previous ten years. Before moving (or being acquired by) Rigaku, he served as the Vice President of the Molecular Structure Corporation, which he claims to have been recruited into based on software developed in his post-doc lab. Among the many interesting stories he told us was one about when Japanese-owned Rigaku acquired Poland-based Oxford Diffraction. He said, "there are not two cultures more different than these”, highlighting challenges in this merger. His role was to integrate these cultures, which required 16 around-the-world trips over two years. After this, he settled into his retirement, but was recruited back in what turned out to be one month before the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, resulting in a two-year remote (by Zoom) stint before re-entering retirement. He maintained his role as editor of RefleXions until 2025. His engaged lifestyle appears to continue despite his retirement and relinquishing editorial control, with active hobbies including photography (don’t take my word for it – see his amazing images at https://paulswepston.com/work).

So, we asked, what does the editor for the newsletter do anyway? It seems that in its origin with Jenny Glusker, the editor did everything! Over the years, different tasks were delegated, resulting in a rich offering of topical articles and recurring features including puzzle corner and historical accounts among others. When Paul stepped in, he claims the role of editor was simply to insert new content into the predesigned layout in the program InDesign (Adobe). The harder part, he notes, was wrestling that content out of contributors, including some (certainly the exception, not the rule) president’s columns, and especially the annual meeting individual session summaries. Because of the fixed layout, changes in one page had to be accounted for in the subsequent pages, and late additions were really a pain. He notes that one of the challenges was writing up the obituaries, and then he chuckled as he related that it was a testament to someone’s impact if he couldn’t find anyone to write something nice in their send off! (I’ve certainly been nicer to my colleagues since this was pointed out!).

Our conversation drifted to major milestones he had witnessed in the structural sciences, and we surmise that through his role at Rigaku he often had a front row seat. These included the introduction of area detectors and optics system developments, and the development of the theory of anomalous dispersion followed by the race to measure these small differences with high enough accuracy for structure solutions. Through his career he met and worked with brilliant minds from our field (even aside from Dr. Ferrara), including attending an early conference talk by Dr. Wayne Hendrickson and discussing the huge potential of anomalous scattering for phasing with his supervisor upon returning home, and his close collaborations through Rigaku with Dr. Zbyszek Otwinowski (“working with him was nuts but he is brilliant”) and Dr. Wladek Minor (“those guys were a hoot”). We turned to more recent developments, and Paul called out the major advances in micro-electron diffraction, as it “expands the universe of what you can study with a single crystal” and is especially impactful for structural studies of MOFs.

He also commented on the role of advertisements, especially as a source of income for the society, and the potential to lose this by transitioning to different newsletter formats. Through his role at Rigaku he said he understands well the importance of commercial ads, but also commented that no one in the field is calling up and buying a high-dollar piece of equipment because of these ads – instead, it was about culturing relationships and trust over years. These bonds (emotional, professional, chemical – take your pick!) are what underpins the American Crystallographic Society, and we are all richer for the efforts of the members before us. We suggest that today is as good a time as any to reflect on what you can do to facilitate or improve the ACA, from contributing at the annual meeting to taking on an organizational or service role. Consider this a personal request, from us to you, to be an active member of the ACA. And if you are inclined to make a (welcomed) submission to RefleXions, get in touch with any of the Communications Committee members, headquarters staff, or go directly to the submission page.