IUCr Poster Prizes at BCA 2023

Three IUCr Journal Poster Prizes were awarded at the annual conference of the British Crystallographic Association (BCA), held at the University of Sheffield, UK, just before Easter 2023. The criteria guidelines were that “The IUCr is pleased to offer a prize for each of the three best posters from an undergraduate, postgraduate or postdoctoral researcher with up to 3 years' experience in distinct areas of crystallography such as structural biology, structural chemistry and applied crystallography”. The judges were Dr Petra Bombicz (Hungary), Professor Bo Brummerstedt Iversen (Denmark), Dr Charlie McMonagle (France) and myself as Chair. There were 58 chemistry posters, 9 in biology, 20 in physics and 1 industrial. The standard of the posters and their science was very high. The prize winners were as follows, in alphabetical order:

Nicholas Funnell of the ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK, whose poster was entitled “LMX – a new single-crystal, neutron time-of-flight diffractometer for large-molecule crystallography”.

Lavanya Kumar of the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Poland, whose poster was entitled “Correlating experimental and calculated charge density of halogen-bonded materials”.

Joshua Levinsky of the School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, UK, whose poster was entitled “The barocaloric and structural properties of choline-based plastic crystals”. [Barocaloric materials are characterized by strong, reversible thermic responses to changes in pressure and have potential use as refrigerants in cooling systems instead of gases such as hydrofluorocarbons.]

IUCr Poster Prize Awardees, from left: Nick Funnell, Lavanya Kumar and Joshua Levinsky. John Helliwell making the presentations at the conference dinner, held in the University of Sheffield Students’ Union building, to Nick and Joshua. Presentation photographs courtesy of Dr Iain Oswald of the University of Strathclyde.

The prize comprised a copy each of the IUCr’s Little Dictionary of Crystallography 3rd edition and a complimentary three-year membership of the IUCr Associates Programme.