Nov 242013
 

seville-orangesThe annual Masters in Crystallography and Crystallization is organised by Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, La Factoría de Cristalización, and CSIC (the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientificas). The core module of the course is hosted during October and November in Seville. Richard Cooper from Chem Cryst gave lectures and a workshop for two days on crystallographic structure solution through charge-flipping (based on Pr. Chapuis’ course material) and the mathematics and practicalities of structure refinement.

Oct 112013
 

parkSung is working on a project to include refinement of anharmonic atomic displacement parameters in CRYSTALS. When he is not in the office, he can be found at Oxford Entrepreneur’s club, on the squash court, the real-tennis court, or injuring himself playing rugby for St Edmund Hall.

Oct 112013
 

arnoldJames is developing new anisotropic motion restraints for the CRYSTALS refinement software. When not in the lab or Exeter bar, he can be found collaborating with the cylons, usually to the detriment of the twelve colonies of humanity.

Oct 082013
 
King of the CastleRajiv is predicting and modelling the effect of small perturbations of molecular geometry on crystal packing. Often found in the Worcester bar, as captain of darts and as Food and Bar rep. May also be found attempting to kick the ball for Worcester MCR football.
Sep 092013
 

diamondThe fourth meeting of the Red Kite Network was held on Monday 9th September 2013, at Diamond Light Source.

The meeting included a tour of the synchrotron and a full programme of talks by local speakers, focussed on the use of synchrotron radiation as a structural probe.

Programme
1:15 pm Dr. Harriott Nowell (Diamond) Introduction and Welcome
1:20 pm Dr. Steve Thompson (Diamond) “I11 Upgrade Project”
1.50 pm Dr. Philip Chater (Diamond) “Structural Chemistry Through the Length Scales”
2.20 pm Tours, Tea, Coffee and Posters in R22
3.50 pm Dr. Anna Warren (Diamond) “X-ray Imaging as a Tool for Crystal Location”
4.10 pm Jon Treacy (Diamond/Manchester) “SXRD of Metal Oxides”
4.30 pm Rich Knighton (Oxford) “Towards Selective Anion Binding By Templated Interlocked Structures”
4.50 pm Karim Sutton (Oxford) “Big Methods for Small Molecules”
5.10 pm Drinks reception and Posters

The meeting closed with the award of prizes for best posters.

Aug 282013
 

Jenkin on BraggsThis year the European Crystsallographic Meeting was hosted in the UK for the first time since 1977. The meeting at the University of Warwick co-incided with the Bragg Centenary and included a fantastic collection of historical artefacts associated with the Braggs including scientific instruments, models, letters, portraits and notebooks organized by Mike Glazer and Pam Thomas.

Contributions originating from Chem. Cryst.  included:

Richard I. Cooper
Space groups and symmetry (ECACOMSIG Computing School lecture and workshop)

Pascal Parois
Alternative criteria for optimal data collection strategy (Talk in the Photocrystallography session)

Kirsten Christensen
Molecular Modulated Structures: Rare Today, Ubiquitous Tomorrow? (Talk in Aperiodic Crystals: Structure, Dynamics and Magnetism session)

pascal talk

Pascal Parois on alternative criteria for data collection strategy optimisation

bill david

Bill David at the Bragg Symposium on the past and future of crystallography

ecacomsig

The ECA computing school lecturers and participants

Andrew Cairns explaining NLC

Andrew Cairns explaining NLC

Aug 092013
 

iccossThe 21st International Conference on the Chemistry of the Organic Solid State was held from 5th-9th August 2013 at St Catherine’s College in Oxford. ICCOSS deals with various aspects of the crystalline state and reactivity of organic and hybrid materials from preparation to characterization. It includes the investigation of crystal structures and supramolecular architectures, crystal growth and design, inclusion compounds, topochemical reactions, nanostructures, heterogeneous interfaces.

Amber Thompson presented a talk entitled Modulated structures: a curiosity today, ubiquitous tomorrow? and Richard Cooper presented work carried out with Jerome Wicker: Will it Crystallize?

Jul 242013
 

hawaiiThe Annual Meeting of the American Crytsallographic Association was held from July 20-24 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The programme included a broad range of crystallographic topics on structure validation, materials for a sustainable future, structural enzymology, thin films, data mining, and neutron & synchrotron sources.

Karim Sutton represented Chem Cryst, and was awarded a Margaret C. Etter Student Lecturer Award for his contribution on the application of macromolecular phasing techniques to small molecule crystallography. Andrew Cairns from Oxford also attended and gave a talk on designing new materials with large negative linear compressibility, for which he was also awarded a Student Lecturer Award. Congratualtions to them both!