The Zürich School of Crystallography

Bring your own crystals

University of Zürich
August 5 - August 17, 2007

The first ever Zürich Crystallography School was intended for masters and Ph.D. students in chemistry and crystallography from all over Europe, particularly those who do not have ready access to crystallography courses at their own institution.

Twenty students from Croatia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey, all of them under 35, met over food and drinks on the evening of August 5, 2007 with nine tutors from the different Swiss laboratories of crystallography. At 08.30 h on Monday morning the thirteen young women and seven young men, selected from among 35 applicants and all of them highly motivated, embarked upon an eleven-day tour featuring the science and art of crystallography. The daily schedule included lectures, mostly in the morning, and practical work, mostly in the afternoon, at the microscopes, the diffractometers and computers of the University of Zürich. Coffee and lunch breaks benefited from the lush green park surrounding the university. The day concluded around 19.00 h with a review of the day's work and impressions of the students, including their frustration at times and their satisfaction at others. Although many tutors live in Zürich, they attended the evening dinners in the hotel and were thus available for the students all day.

At the end of the course, every student completed a questionnaire. Some of the recurring comments are summarized here. On a scale of 'too much' to 'too little', the information content of the lectures was rated 'just right'. The same was said about the level of coverage and the speed of the lectures, albeit with a clear indication that some students found the material  'too advanced' and 'too fast', respectively. Lectures, lecture notes, practical sessions and tutorials were considered good to excellent, but the students indicated a strong desire to spend more time in practical sessions at the expense of theoretical lectures. The available time for digestion of the course material, social events and recreation was considered definitely to be insufficient. These remarks confirm our impression that the students were taxed to their limits. It goes to their credit, though, that despite the high demands on their time and attention, they did not give up on the way, and full attendance was recorded in almost every session. A significant amount of credit for this result also goes to the tutors: asked what they liked most about the School, thirteen students mentioned 'the tutors' for their friendliness and expertise.  Eight students took the written exam for ETCS credit points, six passed.

The central goal of the School was for every student to solve his or her own structure. This goal was reached to the extent that the students eventually provided their own, good-quality crystals.  However, many crystalline samples were initially unsuitable and the number of possibly twinned structures was beyond the statistical average.  In future schools - if any - more attention should be given to pre-school information on crystallization and optical inspection of the samples. The students should be encouraged to send their crystals as early as possible for two reasons: on one hand, the tutors need sufficient time to record diffraction data from the samples and to judge their didactic suitability; on  the other hand, being informed early enough about unsuitable samples allows the students time for repeated crystallization experiments in their home labs. In spite of some such difficulties, all students unanimously agreed that the School was worthwhile and that they now feel better equipped to determine their structures. They were equally unanimous, however, in asking to spend more time on the diffractometers, to learn more about data reduction and to try their hand at set examples of structure refinements; one routine one and some with increasing degrees of difficulties.

Sponsors and Finances

We are very grateful to the generosity of the sponsors: Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Zürich; the Swiss Chemical Industries (KGF); ETH Zürich; European Crystallographic Association; Swiss Crystallographic Society; Swiss Chemical Society; Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre; International Union of Crystallography; Oxford University Press; Oxford Diffraction; Bruker AXS; Crystallography Laboratory, University of Neuchâtel; Stoe.

All of the course fee paid by each student was used to cover the accommodation, which included breakfast and most evening meals, as well as lunches at the university cafeteria. All other operating expenses were covered by donations from the sponsors.  Some sponsors asked that their contribution be used to ameliorate the travel/accommodation/ course costs for young people. Bursaries amounting to CHF 3,800 were provided to four students: from Russia, Turkey and Serbia (2). We believe that the offered bursaries and the ability to keep the participants' costs at a low level fulfilled the sponsors' requests.

Hotel accommodation is expensive in Zürich and was the major expense involved in running the School.  The Coronado Hotel provides comfortable accommodation at fairly reasonable rates and its proximity to the university campus was highly appreciated by students and tutors.  Any extension of the School duration, as recommended by the student feedback, would have to be considered carefully in light of the additional costs involved and higher course fees.  On this occasion, we kept the expenses for tutors down by utilizing the good people available in Zurich itself and other parts of Switzerland.  If we wish to invite international experts to assist with future Schools, we will need significant additional financial support to cover their airfares and accommodation.

Tony Linden, Hans-Beat Bürgi, School Directors

A student's perspective

The Zürich Crystallography School

Hosted by the University of Zürich and organized by PD Dr. Anthony Linden and Prof. Hans-Beat Bürgi, The Zürich Crystallography School took place for the first time in August, 2007. Interested in crystallography, twenty participants, mainly PhD students from all over Europe, came together to attend this two-week class.

The course started Sunday evening with a nice get-together, so people got a chance to get to know each other and every student received a folder with all the documents and teaching material for the next two weeks. As you could download the course material beforehand, you were able to prepare yourself and get a rough idea of what's to come.

Starting with the main principles of diffraction, growing crystals and how to mount them, to discussing difficulties and problems and finally solving and refining your own crystal structures during the practical work, the course covered all topics. So no matter whether you were already experienced or not, the course covered both basic and advanced skills and provided new and more in-depth insights into the subject. Therefore, everyone was able to profit and gain plenty of new knowledge about crystallography. Determining your crystal structures, you learned both “which button to push” but more importantly “why”.

The first week was dominated by theory whereas during the second week the morning and afternoon sessions were split into a theoretical and a practical part. For the practical work, the twenty participants were divided into ten groups of two people each, depending on their previous knowledge, so every group consisted of one more and one less experienced student.

The lectures were hosted in a modern classroom and the practical exercises took place in a fully equipped computer-room. One computer was provided to each group, but you were welcome to bring your own laptop. During the time of the course, internet access to the University WLAN was provided and could also be used over the weekend. The nine tutors, who have been working in this field for years, supervised the ten groups during all the tutorials and exercises, so the students profited from intense supervision and support while trying to solve their structures.

With access to four different types of diffractometers on offer, every student got the chance to set up a crystal measurement on a machine similar to the one their own group is using. Each evening, the class ended with a short summary of the day where students got the chance to comment on the day's lectures or to mention things they noticed.

I would like to emphasize the extraordinary commitment of all of the tutors. Even though many of them lived close enough to go home in the evening, they all joined the evening dinner to have discussions or simply pleasant conversations. They worked unsocial hours no matter whether it was to prepare the lectures, to help us deal with difficult crystal structures or give us an extra maths-refresher in a nice evening get-together. Not just the organization of the course was absolutely flawless, but also the social gatherings like the excursion to the PSI with the synchrotron and SINQ or the two barbecues we had. With a big dinner on the last evening, the course concluded with a little surprise for the students: they received a certificate for their attendance and a great book about crystal structure refinement (Müller et al. Crystal Structure Refinement, a Crystallographer's Guide to SHELXL – donated by the IUCr and OUP).

It was a total of 90 hours of crystallography, two weeks of really hard work for both the students and the tutors, but believe me it was absolutely worth it! I think all of them did a great job and I honestly hope some more courses like this one will follow so other people interested in crystallography will get the chance to attend this really great course, too, and to go home and not just be satisfied with the massive amount of knowledge they gained during these two weeks, but with the inspiration to improve themselves in this art.

Last but not least, I'd like to use this opportunity to thank all the sponsors of this course who made this great experience possible and affordable. Thank you.

Julia Rinck, Karlsruhe