2nd High-Pressure Single-Crystal X-Ray Diffraction Summer School

The 2nd High-Pressure Single-Crystal X-Ray Diffraction Summer School was held at the James Clerk Maxwell Building of the University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland), from July 22nd to July 26th 2024 (https://indico.ph.ed.ac.uk/event/282/overview). The School was supported and approved by the IUCr, through the IUCr Commission on High Pressure. A total of 30 participants from 15 countries and 4 continents attended the full week. These participants were provided an accommodation at the University’s Pollock Halls. The School was such a vibrant success that we will hold another one next summer, but this time in Frankfurt (Germany) — and certainly in upcoming years as well, making it an annual event.

The intent of the School was to train young and established scientists in the recent methodological advancements in high-pressure single-crystal X-ray diffraction. These new developments enable solving and refining crystal structures from tiny micrometre- to submicrometre-sized crystallites confined in diamond anvil cells up to pressures of multiple hundreds of gigapascals (GPa). An overview of the necessary fundamental theoretical and methodological principals, including diamond anvil cell preparation, strategy of experiments, laser-heating, introduction to software and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), was covered through lectures. These were accompanied by 13 hours of hands-on sessions, where participants were divided into five small groups of six individuals, each with its own instructor, and guided through step-by-step tutorials and examples. At the end of the School, participants were able to perform basic high pressure SCXRD experiments, as well as data processing and interpretation. The lectures and hands-on tutorials were given by a total of nine experts, including three from the United Kingdom, five from Germany and one from the United States, with a woman-to-man ratio of 4:5.

To maximize discussions between participants as well as between participants and lecturers, snacks, lunches and dinners were provided on-site for the complete duration of the School. All participants were requested to bring a poster presenting their research, which were shown and displayed during two poster sessions. Moreover, extracurricular activities took place during three evenings, namely a whisky tasting, a walking tour of Edinburgh and a ceilidh — a traditional Scottish group dance.

During the last day of the School, the IUCr awardees were given their certificates. The participants were also requested to fill out an online survey to gauge their satisfaction and identify aspects to improve for next editions of the School. Overall, their response was overwhelming positive. Indeed, all 28 participants that took part in the survey said they would recommend the School to others, while 64.3% and 35.7% rated their overall impression of the School as “Excellent” or “Good”, respectively. Among all surveyed aspects, the one with the least positive feedback was meals and refreshments, for which 75% of the participants were either “Very satisfied” or “Satisfied”, but 25% were “Neutral” or “Dissatisfied”. In the future, a different catering company will be used.

Questions and pie chart representations of the answers obtained from the survey filled out by 28 participants at the end of the School.

IUCr Young Scientist Awardees (left to right): Benedito Donizeti Botan Neto (Universitat de València, Spain), Xuejing He (University of Tokyo, Japan), Almudena Inchausti Vallés (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) and Natalia Sacharczuk (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland).

Given the increasing importance of the diamond anvil cell single-crystal X-ray diffraction of polycrystalline samples methodology, as well as the very positive feedback received from participants at the School, we are confident that new participants will attend the next edition in Frankfurt (Germany), which will undoubtedly be just as successful. Looking forward to summer 2025…!