Quantum Crystallography Workshop

About

The University of Geological Sciences (Tashkent) will host a workshop dedicated to modern applications of crystallography on September 21–23, 2026.

The workshop is organized under Germany’s DFG program project, “Quantum Crystallographic Exchange between Uzbekistan and Germany.”

Participating Speakers

• MB

  Dr. Michael Bodensteiner

  Quantum Crystallography: What Is Hidden in Residual Density?

  Michael Bodensteiner is Head of the X-ray Crystallography Section at the University of Regensburg and Managing Director of OlexSys GmbH. Ever since he began his PhD in organometallic chemistry, he has been devoting himself increasingly to crystallography. His research focuses on a range of crystallographic effects, always in the quest for an even better structure that will yield further insights into the chemistry of the compounds under investigation. He currently serves as Chairman of the Working Group Chemical Crystallography of the German Chemical Society (GDCh).

  As the coordinator for the German side of the project, he will present the exchange programme and introduce quantum crystallography. In addition, he will outline the advanced experimental techniques used in his research and explain what lies behind residual electron density and what can be gained from it.

• GB

  Dr. Gábor Balázs

  Polyphosphorus Complexes — Synthesis, Reactivity and Electronic Structure

  Gábor Balázs is a Senior Academic Officer at the University of Regensburg, working with Professor Wolf. He has held several postdoctoral positions in various fields of organometallic chemistry, including at the University of Oxford, where he collaborated with Professors D. M. P. Mingos and J. C. Greene as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. This work has given him extensive practical experience of a variety of synthetic and analytical methods. His expertise in theoretical chemistry and quantum crystallography emerges from his many years of work at the intersection of synthetic and theoretical chemistry.

  Drawing on this expertise in synthesis, structure and theory, he will discuss the activation and reactivity of white phosphorus P₄ by transition-metal complexes, using examples such as [Cp'''Ni(P₃)], [(Ar*BIAN)Co(η⁴-P₄)]⁻ and [(η⁵-P₅)Co(η³-P₃)]⁻ He will also demonstrate how their reactivity can be rationalised through their electronic structure as revealed by DFT calculations.

• UE

  Prof. Dr. Ulli Englert

  Data Quality and Resolution

  Ulli Englert retired from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of RWTH Aachen University in 2023 and is now affiliated with the College of Chemistry and Material Science at Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang, China. He brings several decades of experience in crystallographic didactics and in the interpretation of high-resolution diffraction data. During his time at RWTH Aachen, he built long-standing academic ties with Uzbekistan, including a bilateral exchange programme funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and continues to maintain contact with Uzbek colleagues.

  Drawing on this experience, Ulli Englert will address the critical aspects of data quality and resolution in single-crystal diffraction experiments and will share his perspective on crystallographic didactics and how a rigorous understanding of data quality underpins reliable structural and quantum crystallographic results.

• AK

  Prof. Anna Krawczuk

  Structure–Property Correlation from a Quantum Crystallography Perspective

  Anna Krawczuk, a junior professor at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Göttingen, was recently awarded a prestigious Heisenberg professorship by the German Research Foundation (DFG). She is the chair of the Special Interest Group (SIG) 02 Quantum Crystallography of the European Crystallographic Association. Her research group establishes direct structure–property correlations in solid-state materials, combining expertise in material science and photophysics with high-pressure crystallography, which uses non-ambient conditions to tune intermolecular distances and reveal optimal packing arrangements for functional materials. Central to her work is her software PolaBer, developed for the accurate calculation of distributed polarizabilities and the prediction of optoelectronic properties in molecules and macromolecules.

  Her talk will focus on the relationship between crystal structure and material properties, including luminescence, and will demonstrate how the PolaBer software can be applied to polarization studies as part of a quantum crystallographic workflow.

• FM

  Dr. Florian Meurer

  How Heavy Is Too Heavy? Quantum Crystallography at the End of the Periodic Table

  Shortly before his departure for Uzbekistan, Florian Meurer will complete his PhD at the University of Regensburg, which was funded by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. Throughout his academic journey, from his bachelor's thesis to his doctoral dissertation, he has delved into various facets of crystallography, including MOFs, bonding analysis, anomalous dispersion, and radiation damage. He has published numerous scientific papers and is a member of the Early-Career Board of the IUCr journals. He is the developer of SISYPHOS, a software module for the automatic, serial refinement of single-crystal diffraction data in Olex2 and has gained hands-on experience over several months working at the European Synchrotron in Grenoble.

  In his talk, Florian Meurer will discuss bonding and charge analysis in actinide compounds, the use of synchrotron radiation and X-ray-restrained wavefunction techniques in this context, and how his SISYPHOS software enables efficient batch processing of large and complex crystallographic datasets.

• AP

  PD Dr. Alexander Pöthig

  Structural Insights into Metallosupramolecular Systems: From X-ray to Electron Diffraction

  Alexander Pöthig is Managing Director and a Principal Investigator of the Catalysis Research Center (CRC) at the Technical University of Munich. He is a structural chemist working at the interface of supramolecular chemistry, coordination chemistry, and crystallography, with a research group that has extensive experience applying advanced analytical methodologies, including electron diffraction, conventional X-ray methods, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, to challenging chemical problems. He currently serves as spokesperson for the Chemical Crystallography Working Group of the German Crystallographic Society (DGK) and as secretary of the same working group of the same name of the German Chemical Society (GDCh).

  His presentation will focus on the design and structural characterisation of complex metallosupramolecular assemblies using single-crystal X-ray and electron diffraction techniques, highlighting how modern diffraction methods and quantum crystallography provide detailed insight into molecular structure, self-assembly processes, and intermolecular interactions within his field of supramolecular chemistry.

• HP

  Prof. Dr. Horst Puschmann

  Quantum Crystallography in Olex2

  Horst Puschmann is one of the founders and original developers of the small-molecule crystallography software Olex2 and is based at OlexSys and Durham University. He is also a key investigator on the project "An Integrated 'Workbench' Environment for Quantum Crystallography" and leads the EPSRC-funded "Quantum Box" project, which aims to lower the barrier to entry for quantum crystallographic techniques by building a unified, community-driven software platform. Over the past decade, his work has focused on integrating advanced refinement and analysis tools into an accessible and robust software environment for the crystallographic community.

  In his talk, he will present the Olex2 and NoSpherA2 crystallographic software packages and demonstrate structure handling within them, with a particular focus on their advanced refinement and analysis tools for quantum crystallography.

• FK

  Dr. Felix Hennersdorf

  Rigaku advances in X-ray and electron diffraction

  Felix Hennersdorf is part of the Sales Team of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, where he supports users of single-crystal and electron diffractometers and the CrysAlisPro data collection and processing software across a range of applications, from routine small-molecule structures to more challenging cases such as twinned or multi-component crystals.

  His talk will demonstrate the collection and processing of X-ray and electron diffraction data using CrysAlisPro and explain the technical details of the underlying instrumentation.

Schedule