CrystEngComm Blog

Rahul Banerjee, an Associate Editor of CrystEngComm, was recently awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) India. The award, named after the first director-general of the CSIR, is given annually to 8-10 researchers up to the age of 45 for notable and outstanding research in one of seven disciplines. Rahul, who is based at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, was awarded the prize in the field of Chemical Sciences for his work on structural chemistry with applications in hydrogen storage and carbon capture.

Rahul recently guest edited a CrystEngComm themed issue on Covalent organic frameworks and organic cage structures, along with Neil R. Champness.

The whole team here at CrystEngComm would like to offer a huge congratulations to our colleague Rahul for this immense achievement!

This past July the 5^th European Crystallographic School (ECS5) was held in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The event is aimed at providing young researchers with a comprehensive overview of all aspects of crystallography. An international selection of lectures covered a diverse range of topics ranging from fundamentals such as point groups and space groups to applications of the technique in biology and materials science. 

The school was a huge success, attracting over 60 participants from 10 countries across Europe and Africa. CrystEngComm was pleased to support the event by providing the participants with free subscriptions to the journal, as well as book vouchers which were awarded for active participation. The winners were Jacky Bouanga Boudiombo (University of Cape Town) and Siyabonga Hulushe (Rhodes University), with honourable mentions going to Aleix Tarrés Solé (CSIC), Stanley Manzini (Sasol Group Technology) and Marco Bardini (University of Cape Town).

	Active participants, from left to right  – Aleix Tarrés Solé, Marco Bardini, Siyabonga Hulushe, Jacky Bouanga Boudiombo and Stanley Manzini

CrystEngComm offers sincere congratulations to the winners and would like to wish all participants the best in their future research.

This August the 2nd Southeast Asian Conference on Crystal Engineering (SEACCE-2) was held at Sunway University, Malaysia.

Hosted by Professor Edward R.T. Tiekink, Head the Research Centre for Crystalline Materials at Sunway, the event aims to bring together researchers from Southeast Asian Nations, along with China and India, to discuss recent advances from across the fields of crystallography, crystal engineering, supramolecular chemistry, and more! Over 100 delegates participated in the activities with good representation from Thailand, India, The People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and hosts Malaysia. Featuring internationally renowned keynote speakers Gautam Desiraju, Chen Xiao-Ming and Jagadese J. Vittal as well as submitted talks and poster presentations, the conference gave emerging investigators and students to network with some of the leaders in the field. 

CrystEngComm was pleased to support the event by offering awards for outstanding flash poster talks. The presenters were challenged to communicate and highlight the significance of their research effectively in three minutes using only a single static slide.

The winners of this challenging task were:

		Cao Chenchen Sun Yat-Sen University (People’s Republic of China) Linker Installation to Constructs a Bifunctional Metal-Organic Framework as Heterogeneous Catalyst for Stepwise Organic Transformations
		Dr Suman Bhattacharya University of Limerick (Republic of Ireland) Temperature-dependent Phase Switching in a 2D Layered MOF
		Bibhuti Bhusan Rath National University of Singapore (Singapore) Structural Transformation of Photoreactive Helical Coordination Polymers to Two Dimensional Structures
		Dr Mark Lee Wun Fui Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (Malaysia) Supramolecular Assembly of Rhenium(I) Complexes Mediated by Ligand Planarity via Interplay of Substituents

All prizes were presented by conference Chairman Edward Tiekink, the winners recieved a journal certificate and free subscription.

CrystEngComm and the RSC offer a hearty congratulations to all poster prize winners! 

This July saw the occasion of The 68th Conference of Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry (JSCC), held in Sendai. The event was a great success, featuring over 200 talks in both English and Japanese spread over six sessions as well as almost 300 posters.

CrystEngComm‘s Deputy Editor, Mike Andrews, and the RSC’s Editorial Development Manager for Japan, Hiromitsu Urakami, were on-hand to award poster prizes for the best student poster presentations.

		The CrystEngComm award went to Tomohiro Fujimoto of Osaka University, for his poster:  オスミウム錯体を触媒とするアルケンの1,2-アミノアルコール化反応における反応活性種の同定と反応性 (Identification and Reactivity of Active Species in the 1,2-Aminohydroxylation of Alkenes Catalyzed by an Osmium Complex) Tomohiro Fujimoto (right) receiving his award from Mike Andrews (left)
		The Dalton Transactions Award went to Yuta Ohtsubo of Kyushu University, for his poster:  多孔性金属錯体を利用した水素分子の核スピン変換の促進 (Promotion of nuclear spin conversion of molecular hydrogen using a porous metal complex) Yuto Ohtsubo (right) receiving his award from Mike Andrews (centre) and Hiro Urakami (left)
		The Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers award went to Aoyama Tomokazu of Tokyo Metropolitan University for his poster: 水素生成を目指した新規水溶性超分子システムの調製と触媒機能 (Preparation and catalytic activity of a novel water-soluble supramolecular system aimed at hydrogen production) Aoyama Tomokazu (right) receiving his award from Mike Andrews (centre) and Hiro Urakami (left)

The poster prize winners received a journal certificate and a colour changing RSC mug!

The RSC offers a hearty congratulations to prize winners at the JSCC!

This July saw the occasion of the 68th annual meeting of the American Crystallographers Association, held in Toronto. The event draws crystallographers and professionals in related fields from both academia and industry and features a packed schedule, including world-renowned keynote speakers. The CrystEngComm poster prize was awarded to Aristyo Soecipto, for his poster “Chiral Segregation of Space by Anionic Assemblies found in Tartramide-based Spiroborate Salts.“

Aristyo works in the group of Professor Ian D. Williams at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. CrystEngComm would like offer a hearty congratulations to Aristyo for his excellent poster presentation!

This month saw the occasion of the 3rd International Symposium on Halogen Bonding, held in Greenville, South Carolina and chaired by Professor Bill Pennington (Clemson University). The event was a huge success, attracting over 90 participants from 21 countries, who came to discuss the latest developments in this exciting field of crystal engineering. Covering topics ranging from fundamentals like the refinement of the σ- and π-hole model to applications in fields such as pharmaceuticals, catalysis, and functional materials, the discussions were broad and vibrant – in part due to a strong showing of early career researchers. Three such promising academics presented in a special Rising Stars session, which CrystEngComm was pleased to support.  

Presenting in this session was (pictured, left-to-right) Rafael Nunes of the University of Lisbon, Professor Davita L. Watkins of the University of Mississippi, and Dr Filip Topic of McGill University, they each received discounted registration and a personal invitation to submit to CrystEngComm.

Immediately prior to the symposium was a satellite workshop on the IUPAC project to characterize chalcogen, pnictogen, and tetrel bonds – analogous interactions in which Group 14-16 element act as the electrophilic sites. Organized and Chaired by Professor Giuseppe Resnati (Politecnico Milano), the workshop featured a lively poster session and the RSC provided awards for two of the researchers presenting their work. The CrystEngComm prize went to Patrick Wonner of Ruhr-University-Bochum for his poster entitled “Carbon-halogen Bond Activation by Selenium-Based Chalcogen Bonding“, while the NJC prize went to Asia Marie Riel of Université de Rennes for her poster entitled “Isolated and Expanded Chalcogen Bond Halide Networks” (both pictured below).

	Left-to-Right: Giuseppe Resnati (Chair of IUPAC Workshop), Khadijatul Kobra (winner of AICIng poster prize), Patrick M.J. Szell (winner of ACS poster prize), Asia Marie Riel (winner of RSC NJC poster prize), Patrick Wonner (winner of RSC CrystEngComm poster prize), Alex Elmi (winner of Springer poster prize), and Bill Pennington (Chair of ISXB-3).

CrystEngComm offers a huge congratulations to all Rising Stars and poster prize winners!