chem cryst
X-ray Crystallography
University of Oxford

University of Oxford Chemical Crystallography Laboratory

The Chemical Crystallography Laboratory is located in the basement of the new Chemistry Research Lab on the corner of South Parks Road and Mansfield Road. The laboratory contains state of the art crystallographic diffraction equipment, laboratory space for sample preparation, office space for computational and theoretical work.

David Watkin oversees a group currently consisting of two emeritus professors, one D.Phil, and two Post Docs. Members of other groups within Chemistry are encouraged to do their own structural analyses, and space, computers and patient tuition are available for them in the laboratory.

The Chemical Crystallography Laboratory has a long history of involvement in software development. Our software, CRYSTALS (single crystal X-ray structure refinement and analysis) is used world wide and has been presented and demonstrated at many meetings and workshops. The long-term aims of our research are to build chemical and crystallographic knowledge into software which can be routinely use by chemists, and to provide novel software tools for professional crystallographers. A computer program should be regarded just like any other laboratory apparatus: It may be a quick solution to a one-off problem, or it may be more carefully designed so as to have a long and useful life. The role of Part II chemistry students has been to write pilot programs to help evaluate ideas. Those ideas shown to be sound and useful are then incorporated into the distributed programs by D.Phils, Post Docs or permanent members of the laboratory.