On May 30-31, 2023, a workshop on electron crystallography took place in Antwerp, Belgium. The workshop was attended by prominent scientists working in the field, making it a notable event.
This workshop had a rather unusual format for the electron crystallography community. Typically, we organize dedicated schools on electron crystallography, but standalone scientific workshops are rare occurrences. Usually, we meet at larger crystallographic conferences such as ECM and IUCr. However, this year’s IUCr congress will be held in Melbourne, which is a relatively remote location for Europeans, making it difficult for many scientists from Europe to attend.
Despite being solely dedicated to electron crystallography, the workshop covered a broad spectrum of topics. We discussed core problems associated with data collection and processing, diverse applications, as well as related topics such as different approaches to modelling atomic scattering factors, charge density refinement, and structure determination from data with low resolution. We particularly welcomed newcomers from the X-ray crystallography field, who shared their experiences in implementing electron diffraction in their labs and their visions for the future of the method.
The level of participation and engagement from the audience, especially the students, during the discussions after the presentations was particularly impressive. The students asked questions as actively, if not more so, than the senior scientists.
During the workshop, the SIG4 prize for the most prominent publication in the field of electron crystallography was awarded to Meng Ge for the paper titled “Direct Location of Organic Molecules in Framework Materials by Three-Dimensional Electron Diffraction.” The paper, authored by Meng Ge, Taimin Yang, Hongyi Xu, Xiaodong Zou, and Zhehao Huang, was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2022 (Ge et al., 2022, 144, 15165−15174, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c05122).
We express our sincere gratitude to our sponsors who have supported us over the years, making these events possible. Lastly, we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the main organizer of the workshop, Joke Hadermann, and her team for making this event a success.
Electron Crystallography - SIG4 