12th Belgian Crystallography Symposium

More than 70 participants took part in the 12th Belgian Crystallography Symposium (BCS-12), which was held in the Academy Palace in Brussels on 18 October 2023. The National Committee for Crystallography organizes this symposium at biennial intervals to promote contacts between Belgian scientists using diffraction and microscopy techniques for studies in the fields of chemistry and physics, material sciences, earth sciences and life sciences. Because one of the main objectives is to give young researchers an opportunity to present their results, the symposium program includes, in addition to plenary lectures, flash and poster presentations and short lectures by PhD students and postdocs.

During the opening lecture by Professor Dorthe Ravnsbœk (Aarhus University, Denmark) a nice overview was given of how operando synchrotron X-ray diffraction and total scattering can be combined with pair distribution function (PDF) analysis to elucidate the structural evolution in a series of rechargeable battery electrode materials, which undergo varying degrees of disordering during charging or discharging. The morning session continued with nine flash presentations, including three from our sponsors.

Before lunch, a new microfluidics-based method for time-resolved cryo-EM sample preparation was presented by Professor Rouslan Efremov (Free University Brussels). The method was developed for the study of molecular machines, and its application to the GroEL/ES chaperonin system required for assisted folding of many proteins was demonstrated.

During the lunch break, participants had time to visit the poster session and our sponsors.

Romy Poppe (left) receives her IUCr Journals award from Professor Luc Van Meervelt.

In the afternoon Dr Matthew Lightfoot (Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, UK) highlighted the new possibilities with the Cambridge Structural Database, containing today more than 1.25 million structures, and its associated software. The knowledge derived from the structural data contained in the database has underpinned fundamental chemical discoveries and played a key role in designing new materials from drugs to pigments and beyond. The afternoon session ended with seven shorter lectures given by young researchers.

During the reception, two CCDC prizes were awarded to Marek Beliš (Ghent) and Thi Quintelier Matthias (Antwerp), together with the IUCr Journals prize for Romy Poppe (Antwerp).

This BCS-12 meeting was sponsored by Bruker AXS, UCB, Rigaku, CGB-CBB, CCDC and IUCr Journals.