International Union of Crystallography

 

Early Career Scientist Division (ECSD)

The Early Career Scientist Division is a newly formed group of young scientists linking between already existing Young Scientist local associations and the IUCr.

About

The division aims to connect and unite early career scientists and regional associations to facilitate the exchange of information, promote collaboration, and provide opportunities. It also provides resources and support for early career scientists and represents their interests within the IUCr.

Chair

    
   

Name: Rebecca Clulow

   

Position: Researcher

   

Current Affiliation: Uppsala University

   

Region: Europe (Sweden)

   

Research Topic: My research is centred on high entropy materials with applications for hydrogen storage, proton conduction and magnetic properties. Crystallography and diffraction are always at the core of my research where we aim to use structure-property relationships to design greener and more sustainable materials.

 

Co-chair

    
   

Name: Orbett Alexander

   

Position: Lecturer

   

Current Affiliation: University of the Western Cape

   

Region: Africa (South Africa)

   

Research Topic: Design and development of small-molecule therapeutics for biological applications, employing crystallographic techniques for structural elucidation and analysis of structure-activity relationships.

 

Members

    
   

Name: Analio Dugarte

   

Position: Professor

   

Current Affiliation: Universidad de Los Andes

   

Region: Latin American (Venezuela)

   

Research Topic: I work on the structural characterization of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) using powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. Currently, the main focus is on structure determination using powder diffraction data of these APIs.

 

    
   

Name: Alice-Roza Eruera

   

Position: Research Fellow

   

Current Affiliation: University of Otago

   

Region: Oceania (New Zealand)

   

Research Topic: My research is in the cryo-electron microscopy space with a focus on the agents of infectious diseases. Structures I've worked on extend from large macromolecular particles like bacteriophages, VLPs and glycoproteins, to small enzymes like polymerases and proteases with and without inhibitors, using both X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM.

 

    
   

Name: Ghodbane Oumaima

   

Position: PhD candidate

   

Current Affiliation: Abbes laghrour university, Khenchela, Algeria

   

Region: North Africa (Algeria)

   

Research Topic: Synthesis, characterization and applications of polymorphs Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and organic-inorganic hybrid compounds based on nitrogen bases: Towards new materials with physicochemical properties.

 

    
   

Name: Camila Batista Pinto Lacerda

   

Position: Post-doctoral researcher

   

Current Affiliation: Federal University of São Carlos

   

Region: Latin America (Brazil)

   

Research Topic: My main topic of research is small-molecule X-ray crystallography, focusing on the study of non-covalent interactions by means of X-ray charge density studies and topological analysis.

 

    
   

Name: Elodie Tailleur

   

Position: Assistant professor

   

Current Affiliation: University of Lorraine / CRM2 laboratory

   

Region: Europe (France)

   

Research Topic: My research interests focus on the structure-properties relationships of ferroelectric molecular and/or hybrid organic-inorganic materials. For this purpose, I develop advanced crystallographic experiments, in particular in situ X-ray diffraction under electric field.

 

    
   

Name: Nichole Valdez

   

Position:Staff Scientist

   

Current Affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories

   

Region: North America (Mountain USA)

   

Research Topic: Powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction of a variety of materials as a service crystallographer.

 

    
   

Name: Zeyue Zhang

   

Position: PhD student

   

Current Affiliation: Peking University

   

Region: Asia (China)

   

Research Topic: My research interest is on the structural solution for sub-micro crystals using 3D electron diffraction and numerical characterization of dynamical effects. I am also studying the ambiguity of X-ray diffraction, which is also known as homometry.

 

    
   

Name: Kara Zielinski

   

Position: Graduate Student

   

Current Affiliation: University of California

   

Region: North America (USA)

   

Research Topic: : I work on methods development for time-resolved structural biology experiments, with a particular focus on crystallography and solution scattering.

 

Calendar of meetings

Today

11th International Congress on Electron Tomography (ICET 2026) (Madison, WI United States 9th Aug 2026 - 12th Aug 2026)
Twenty-Seventh Congress and General Assembly (IUCr2026) (Calgary Canada 10th Aug 2026 - 18th Aug 2026)

Coming up

Forthcoming meetings can be found using the calendar navigation tool or by selecting a meeting type, topic or country from the lists below.

countries

Regional Early Career Associations

American Crystallographic Association Young Scientists Special Interest Group
Region: US/Canada
Contact: Jayoh Hernandez and Alexis Davidson
Wepage: https://www.amercrystalassn.org/scientific-interest-groups 

British Crystallographic Association Early Stage Crystallography Group
Region: UK
Contact: Dan Rainer
Webpage: https://escg.crystallography.org.uk/

European Crystallographic Association - Young Crystallographers general interest group
Region: Europe
Contact: Marta Morana, Mateja Pisačić 
Webpage: https://ecanews.org/groups/gig-01-young-crystallographers

German Society for Crystallography - Young Crystallographers 
Region: Germany
Webpage: https://dgk-home.de/en/category/young-crystallographers/

Youth Committee of Chinese Crystallographic Society
Region: China
Webpage: https://www.ccrs.net.cn/ 

Italian Association of Crystallography Young Italian Crystallographers
Contact: Martina Lippi
Webpage: https://cristallografia.org/giovani-cristallografi/

French Crystallographic Association Youth Section
Contact: Narimane Meziani and Romain Vincent
Webpage: https://www.afc.asso.fr/l-association/vie-de-lassociation/section-jeunes

Regional Associations


African Crystallographic Association (AfCA) 


American Crystallographic Association (ACA) 


Asian Crystallographic Association (AsCA) 


European Crystallographic Association (ECA) 


Latin American Crystallographic Association (LACA) 



E-mail: [email protected]