Zurich School of Crystallography 2018 in Tianjin
The eighth Zurich School of Crystallography (ZSC) pitched tent at
Tianjin University from 17 to 28 June 2018 following an invitation by
Professor Jay Siegel, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and
Technology (SPST). The school was attended by 20 handpicked
participants, 9 from the Tianjin area, 8 from various other parts of
China, 1 from Hong Kong and 2 from Thailand. Of these, 2 are studying
towards an MSc, 11 are PhD students, 2 are Postdocs and 5 are young
academics. Seven of the long-time Zurich School tutors from the
universities of Zurich, Bern, Prague, ETHZ and EPFL took up the
invitation, namely Tony Linden, Olivier Blacque, Hans-Beat Bürgi, Lukas
Palatinus, Michael Wörle, Bernd Schweizer and Gervais Chapius. Richard
Cooper from Oxford University, Ian Williams from Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology and Junliang Sun from Peking University
completed the team, thereby ensuring our usual and popular 2:1
student:tutor ratio. The goal of the school is to equip each participant
with enough theory and practice to be able to determine small-molecule
organic and inorganic crystal structures and to recognize difficulties
that require help from a more experienced specialist. The encounter of
the mostly western teachers with the Asian students was both interesting
and at times somewhat challenging, but in the end very rewarding.Tianjin international school
The programme followed our well-tried format, usually with two hours of
lectures followed by two hours of practical work during the mornings and
afternoons. The participants had to solve at least three set structures
and could then work on their own data set collected from a sample they
provided. The specially selected set structures provide increasing
levels of complexity. The first one is straightforward and allows the
participants to learn the general procedure from structure solution
through to a completed and validated structure report using the program
package Olex2. The second one requires some chemical knowledge for
proper atom assignment, while for the third one the chemist's guess of
the structure is largely wrong and the actual molecular structure has to
be found using a combination of chemical, crystallographic and
geometrical logic and even databases. Examples involving severe disorder
and solvent molecule handling were also demonstrated.
The SPST is well equipped with three recently installed Rigaku
diffractometers: a Synergy-S and a XtaLAB Synergy Custom FR-X Rotating
Anode system with two ports. In addition, we had access to a Rigaku
SuperNova diffractometer at the School of Science, Tianjin University,
thereby allowing the participants adequate opportunity to gain hands on
experience with data collection procedures using their own samples. Yan
Zier from Rigaku China was on hand to assist with the brand new
instruments and his expertise was highly appreciated. Structure
solution, refinement and analyses were done in a fully equipped computer
room, which provided a workstation for each participant and tutor.
We found that the student-tutor interaction in China is somewhat more
reserved than what we are used to in Zurich and this was particularly
noticeable during the lectures. Although the participants spoke good
English, their pronunciation sometimes needed getting used to. We also
learned that the Chinese language has technical terms that are very
different from the English ones and it was here that the help of our
Chinese colleague Junliang Sun was invaluable, as he usually untangled
communicative roadblocks with a single, short sentence in Chinese. Some
of the lecturers felt at times that their message did not get through,
but as the school proceeded it became increasingly clear that the
participants understood enough of the lectures to be able to consult
their Chinese text books and discuss the day's material together at the
hotel in the evening. Thanks to the 2:1 format during the practical
work, the interaction between the participants and the tutors became
increasingly more relaxed. The very successful outcome of the final
two-hour written exam showed how really hardworking everybody was. When
Lukas Palatinus from Prague started playing the guitar after the final
dinner, everybody joined into the singing and the two cultures had
definitely merged into a single, merry group. On the rest day, the tutors were taken to the Huangyaguan Pass section
of the Great Wall and almost had the wall to themselves during the
strenuous 2.2 km walk along the ridge and down to the river. It was a
great experience.
Professors Jay Siegel, Kim Baldridge and SPST made an enormous effort to
provide a congenial atmosphere for the school and excellent
accommodation. We are especially grateful to Jun Xu who did most of the
local organization, including initial data collections and structure
solving for the crystalline samples contributed by the participants,
thereby ensuring that they did not have to work on didactically
unsuitable structures. Without the efforts of Ying Wei, the Europe-China
communication, transportation and visa arrangements would have been
significantly more difficult. Vice Dean Zhou Yan acted as the local
coordinator and organizer. The directors and local organisers very much
appreciate the willingness of the tutors to undertake this adventure.
Tianjin University, The Health Sciences Platform of Tianjin University
and Rigaku Oxford Diffraction supported the school financially. We also
wish to thank the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre and the
Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe for permission to access their
databases during the school, plus the IUCr for access to International
Tables Online. Last but not least, the tutors are very grateful to the
volunteer students who accompanied them between the hotel and the
university and made sure that we did not get into difficulties in a
country where we knew only a handful of words. Xiè xiè!
|