@glazer1
Crystallographer. Oxford University Physics Department .Retired formally in 2010 but still teaching. Editor of the International Newsletter of the IUCr. Co-founder of Oxford Cryosystems Ltd and co-inventor of the Cryostream.
It was a measurable influence on me, arriving at university, to be taught in a building named after a woman scientist. Having women like Lonsdale to inspire me are a big reason I work in the area I do.
British chemist Dorothy Hodgkin in her laboratory in 1964. She is sitting at a wooden desk, wearing a blue cardigan and green skirt, resting her chin on her hand as she looks thoughtfully toward the camera. On the desk beside her sits a black and gold microscope and a glass display case containing a large, complex crystal structure model. To her left, bookshelves are packed with scientific texts, including a prominent red spine titled "Penicillin Crystal Structures." This image captures the Nobel Prize winner in the environment where she produced the worldβs first 3D atomic maps of essential medicines like penicillin and insulin. The scene highlights her intense intellectual focus and the physical tools of her pioneering work in X-ray crystallography. Digital restoration and colorization by Seriously Scientific.
Remembering Dorothy Hodgkin on International Women's Day!
While Fleming found the mold, Hodgkin solved the 3D atomic puzzle of Penicillin.
Using X-ray crystallography, she mapped the molecule's structure, allowing it to be mass-produced and saving millions of lives! π¬πΊοΈ
#WomenInScience
We're celebrating #InternationalWomensDay by shining the spotlight on one of the most remarkable women of science, who also worked here at the Royal Institution: Kathleen Lonsdale.
Watch the short documentary here: youtube.com/watch?v=FNNI0R2gwM4
Congratulations!
Erik Svensson Grape - awardee - Struchkov Prize 2026
I am incredibly honored to recieve this prize!
Greatly looking forward to attending @iucr2026.bsky.social
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I have many people to thank for all the learning and exciting research over these past years. First and foremost though, is my crystallography mentor and great friend
@keninge.bsky.social
An article I have been waiting to read for years, by my friend (and #crystallography hero) Juanma Garcia-Ruiz and co-authors, has just been published!
"On The Origin of our Fascination with Crystals" π π
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
Hear hear, IUCr2029 @iucr2029.bsky.social is here!
A positive sign from the organizers of a very much awaited #crystallography congress that is getting closer and closer π₯
Give it a nice 'Follow', fellow structural chemists π€β¨π€
I spy a Cryostream!
#crystallography is much more than biological research
βοΈ Don't let your research stay frozen. 4 days left to submit your IUCr2026 abstract, no registration required, just hit submit.
This is your final extension. Thaw out that draft and get it in before the window closes.
π
Feb 22 at 11:59 PM ET
π event.fourwaves.com/...
Oh my word! I just logged in to check the abstracts I have to review and we have 25 submissions for the 'Engaging all in Crystallography' microsymposium @iucr2026.bsky.social
How wonderful that there are so many #crystallographers out there wanting to share the love of their craft!
Oh I love some respect for language, we're all guilty of some misuse, it's never too late to acknowledge and be patient and informative to others!
I could bring up "lattice", "Bragg reflections", and "n-dimensional" (n=0,1,2,3), but I already discuss it here: pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...
#chemsky
The latest issue of the @IUCr Newsletter is now available at www.iucr.org/news/newslet... with lots of topics of interest in #crystallography.
PERSON OF THE DAY. 10 February 1923. German-born Wilhelm RΓΆntgen died (aged 77). He produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays which earned him the 1st Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. Itβs one of the greatest diagnostic medical advances of all time.
What did you do today? I added plane waves.
#BraggYourPattern
While on the topic of sexism and the Nobels, let us recall how the rightwing British newspapers reported Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin's 1964 prize.
Daily Telegraph: "Β£18,750 Award to Mother of Three"
Daily Mail: Hold my beer -
"Oxford Housewife Wins Nobel."
π’What makes a crystallography workshop truly successful? π§
Key insights on planning, teaching, and hands-on learning: ππ§ͺ
doi.org/10.1107/S205...
@actacryste.iucr.org #crystallography #education
That's a right-handed helix!
Fernando GΓ³mez-Ortiz et al.: Structural chirality and natural optical activity across the Ξ± to Ξ² phase transition in SiO2 and AlPO4 from first principles #Chirality #NaturalOpticalActivity #Quartz ... #IUCr https://journals.iucr.org/paper?S1600576726000245
Dβawe, Katrusiak, Nangia and Berry: Acta Crystallographica Section B welcomes three new Co-editors #CoEditors #StructuralScience #CrystalEngineering @Laurier...#IUCr https://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2052520626000685
Kathleen Lonsdale holding part of a chemical model in a laboratory
Crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale 1 of 1st women elected Fellow of RoyalSociety 1945. 1st woman tenured professor @ucl.ac.uk 1st woman president IUCr & BritSciAssoc. Elected Womens Eng Soc member 1946 in recognition of βbrilliant & important work" b #OTD 28 Jan 1903 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathlee...
Happy 50th Anniversary of the Stanford SSRL synchrotron radiation and protein crystallography initiative
The deadline for abstracts is coming up on February 15, 2026.
If youβre planning to present in Calgary, now is the time to prepare and submit your work.
event.fourwaves.com/...
Lauren Hatcher uses time-resolved crystallography to understand how photoactive molecules change structure when exposed to light.
Great to see the work in Vitalyβs group on descriptors for comparing crystal structures get recognised, and in an interesting article to boot!
Duplicates of crystal structures are flooding databases, implicating repositories hosting organic, inorganic, and computer-generated crystals. The issue raises questions about curation practices at databases and claims around novelty. cen.acs.org/research-int... #chemsky π§ͺ
Magnetic Structure Determination: Modeling, Analysis, and Reporting Standards Workshop
Join the Magnetic Structure Determination Workshop at #IUCr2026
Learn how to use symmetry-based modeling, apply representation analysis, and perform hands-on refinements to confidently analyze neutron diffraction data
Details about this pre-Congress event: event.fourwaves.com/...
Congratulations Stefano! I wish you all the best for your fuiture career.
Zhen Song et al.: From symmetry operations to dimensional restrictions: a mathematical formalization of unit-cell constraints for the seven crystal systems in crystallography #CrystalSystemClassification @UniofOxford...#IUCr https://journals.iucr.org/paper?S1600576725010271
