Category: News

On 15th December 2025, a memorial plaque was unveiled in honour of Professor Alajos Kálmán at the Szent László High School in Kőbánya. Alajos Kálmán was one of the most outstanding and influential Hungarian scientists of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Prof. Alajos Kálmán headed the X-ray diffraction department for three decades, which is active in the fields of chemical crystallography and molecular structure research. The research group has been operating Read More …

Our research group, together with two other groups, represented HUN-REN TTK at the Science Expo 2025 exhibition. Our goal was to bring structural research, which is the basis of most chemical and biological research, closer to young people and those interested in the field. We used molecular structure models and microscopes to make the invisible world tangible.

Anna Bell and Petra Bombicz in Visegrad. Anna Ben, PhD student from the Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Łódź, Poland spent three weeks in our research laboratory from 15 Sept to 5 Oct 2025 in the frame of a Visegrád fellowship. Her primarily aim was to learn isostructurality calculation, analysis of structural similarity. She had also API compounds with her for cocrystal formation. We enjoyed her advanced knowledge of crystallography and her company.

Sourav De, Petra Bombicz and Szymon Sobczak at the ECM35 in Poznań. Two members of our research group attended the 35th European Crystallography Meeting in Poznań, Poland. The conference was great in science and was well organized. One lecture and two posters were presented: Petra Bombicz: Comparing crystal structures: isostructurality Sourav De, Szymon Sobczak, Paulina Ratajczyk, Natalia Sacharczuk, Tibor Soós, Petra Bombicz, Andrzej Katrusiak, Tamás Holczbauer: Influence of high pressure on the crystal structure of quinine catalyst Gracjan Russ, Tamás Read More …

Petra Bombicz in the room of crystal preparation of I19 beamline at Diamond Light Source. Our single crystal growth experiments which were performed in microgravity on board the International Space Station in the Kirara #6 incubator during the SpaceX-32 mission in the frame of the HUNOR program in cooperation with Space Application Services and Japan Manned Space Systems have arrived back to Earth. The single crystal X-ray diffraction experiments on the samples grown in microgravity and their counterpart crystals grown Read More …

Full article: https://www.icecubesservice.com/journal/ The crystallization experiments have successfully arrived on board the International Space Station We have recently reported that the researchers of the Centre for Structural Science of HUN-REN RCNS developed a method to grow single crystals of organic compounds in microgravity and sent two compounds for crystallization on board the International Space Station by the invitation of the Space Application Services with the guidance of Japan Manned Space Systems. The samples have arrived with the Kirara#6 mission flown Read More …

See also the ICE Cubes Service’s Post at https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7326557090859167744

The Chemical Crystallography Research Laboratory has developed a method to crystallize organic compounds in microgravity by the invitation of Space Application Services with the guidance of Japan Manned Space Systems. Two compounds synthetized by the Organocatalysis Research Group of Institute of Organic Chemistry of HUN-REN RCNS (OrgCat – Soós Organocatalysis Research Group) will get to the board of the International Space Station in the frame of the HUNOR program in order to grow single crystals of hydrogen bonded organic framework Read More …

Lunch break on the first working day of our youngest colleague: Ivayan De. Congratulations to Sourav on the birth of his son. We wish them lots of health and happiness!

Dr John Bacsa, Director of the X-ray Crystallography Center at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, US, visited us on 7th March 2025. We showed him our chemical and instrumentation laboratory. He gave us an introduction to their practice of crystallization, and a great hands-on tutorial on hints and tricks of structure solution and refinement of problematic structures, on practices he uses to improve the everyday work in the crystallographic laboratory. Thank you for visiting and we look forward to seeing you Read More …