Written by Hannah Waldmann.
The annual meeting of Young Crystallographers took place this year from 30th September to 2nd October 2024 at Rigaku in Neu-Isenburg. The event started on Monday evening at 5 pm in the just recently completed meeting rooms of the Rigaku Europe SE headquarters in the tranquil town of Neu-Isenburg. All participants were warmly welcomed and after some brief information about the timings of the meeting and an introduction to Rigaku and its history, we went straight to the social evening at the ‘Grüner Baum’ restaurant. The walk provided an opportunity to get to know each other for the first time and was already used intensively for scientific discourse. Once there, the evening continued with good food and lively conversation while emptying one or more “bembel” (special traditional pitchers) of Hessian “Ebbelwoi” (apple wine).
Prof. Ella Schmidt (University of Bremen) kicked things off on Tuesday morning with the first scientific talk of the meeting. Although she was unfortunately unable to attend in person, she told us via Zoom about the fascinating and amazingly beautiful world of 3D-ΔPDF analysis. This was followed by one of the major highlights of the meeting, the Rigaku Lab Tour. Over a total of three hours, the application scientists took the time to show us the wide range of state-of-the-art analytical devices on site. A total of 6 devices and analytical techniques were presented, ranging from X-ray fluorescence spectrometers to the classic X-ray single-crystal diffractometer and the dedicated electron diffractometer. Thanks to the generous time slot, there was time to follow one or two measurements live on each device and ask many questions. After a refreshing lunch, the first round of Lightning Talks began where the first half of the participants had 5 minutes each to give the audience a teaser for their posters. After a short coffee break, Dr Bonnie Murphy (MPI of Biophysics) gave us an insight into a less crystallographic but no less interesting topic. She reported on her work on the elucidation of protein structures using cryo-electron microscopy, among other things. After this excursion into biophysics, Stephanie Marek (Merck) told us about her professional career and her work at Merck. That was the end of the day’s lecture programme and we continued with the first of two poster sessions. With around 10 posters per session, there was enough space and time for more detailed explanations and plenty of scientific discussion at each poster. Following the poster session, a warm buffet was available for dinner in the neighbouring room. We rounded off the second evening of the meeting in a cosy atmosphere with a varied selection of dishes and plenty of drinks.
On the morning of the third and final day, despite the previous evening, the seminar room was well filled for the lecture of Prof. Florian Kleemiß (RWTH Aachen University) on quantum crystallography and modelling of diffraction data with non-spherical atomic form factors. The scientific lecture programme was concluded by the second half of the participants with their lightning talks, followed by the second poster session. Once again, a wide range of disciplines were represented and there was a lively discussion over coffee and biscuits. Afterwards, this year’s Young Crystallographers meeting was concluded with a farewell round and the awarding of the poster prizes, which went to Esthy Hung, Jan Elsaß and (surprisingly) myself.
Personally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers from the Young Crystallographers and Rigaku as well as all the participants for this absolutely interesting and entertaining meeting. I learnt a lot during these few days and also got to know many new and, above all, nice people.
Thank you very much and I hope to see you next year!
