By the time you read this, we will be less than two months from the start of IUCr2026. This is a big deal—not only for the American Crystallographic Association, the American Union of Crystallography and the Canadian National Committee for Crystallography, but for the broader crystallographic community.
A tremendous amount of work is happening behind the scenes to make the Congress and General Assembly a memorable scientific and social event. But no matter how much planning goes into it, the success of the meeting depends on us showing up, participating, and making the most of it. This meeting is for us, so let’s help make it the best it can be.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
On a lighter note, I am planning to visit Dinosaur Provincial Park before the Congress begins. It has been on my bucket list since the 2007 ACA Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, so I am especially looking forward to finally making the trip.
In this issue, we spotlight Northwestern University in a new video “How Northwestern Accelerates Advanced Materials Characterization.” Our product highlight this month is on the Intelligent Optics Module, a fully automated alignment system. Our Tip of the Month features Jakub Wojciechowski, who explains how to set up a variable temperature measurement series using CrysAlisPro.
Be sure to visit Crystallography in the News for highlights from cutting-edge research. Jeanette also reviews The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity by Claudia de Rham.
Accommodation deadlines are approaching quickly. University of Calgary dormitory housing, a budget-friendly option, closes June 25. Official Congress hotel blocks at the Westin Calgary, Delta Hotels Calgary Downtown, Calgary Marriott Downtown, and Fairfield Inn & Suites Calgary Downtown close July 1. After these dates, discounted Congress rates and room availability cannot be guaranteed.
Families attending IUCr2026 are encouraged to register for onsite childcare as soon as possible. Subsidized childcare will be available August 12-18 through Heritage Nanny Agency for children ages 16 and under. Capacity is limited, and families registering after the subsidy limit is reached will be placed on a waitlist.
Attendees interested in exploring Calgary and the surrounding region should also note the July 1 deadline for Congress tours. Available options include a pre and post congress day trip to Banff and Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, the Drumheller and Dinosaurs excursion, and a guided walking tour of Calgary. A minimum of 20 participants is required for each tour to proceed.
Whether you are traveling on your own, with colleagues, or bringing your family, now is the time toregister, secure accommodations, reserve tours, and arrange childcare before these important deadlines pass. We look forward to welcoming you to Calgary for IUCr2026.
Our LinkedIn groupshares information and fosters discussion about X-ray crystallography and SAXS topics. Connect with other research groups and receive updates on how they use these techniques in their own laboratories. You can also catch up on the latest newsletter or Rigaku Journal issue. We also hope that you will share information about your own research and laboratory groups.
Atrigakuxrayforum.comyou can find discussions about software, general crystallography issues and more. It’s also the place to download the latest version of Rigaku Oxford Diffraction’sCrysAlisProsoftware for single crystal data processing.
Customer Spotlight: How Northwestern Accelerates Advanced Materials Characterization
MicroED is changing how researchers characterize complex materials when conventional workflows are slow, incomplete, or impractical. In this video, Prof. Omar Farha and researchers at Northwestern University discuss how MicroED helps accelerate the characterization of porous materials, MOFs, microcrystalline powders, polymorphs, and complex synthetic mixtures.
From identifying unexpected phases to avoiding months of trial-and-error on crystals unlikely to yield useful results, MicroED helps researchers work with smaller, more challenging samples and understand what they have made much earlier in the process. The discussion shows how electron diffraction supports faster decisions in synthetic chemistry, materials science, pharma co-crystal development, and high-throughput research workflows.
Achieve peak source performance any time with Intelligent Optics Module (iOM) automated alignment
Automatic beam alignment for consistent performance, the XtaLAB Synergy-DW VHF can now be equipped with our new IOM device for fully motorized automatic beam alignment. With encoders on every axis, iOM puts the beam exactly where you need it with high reproducibility, perfect for the smaller samples commonly studied today. iOM also lets you achieve maximum intensity from your source by automatically maximizing the intensity so you can achieve peak performance at all times.
Intelligent Optics Module (iOM) Overview:
Peak Performance
With automatic alignment, your source can maintain peak performance all the time. Perfect alignment can be achieved within a few minutes to keep your system ready for the smallest and most challenging samples.
Precision Engineering
Reproducibility
The iOM device has been designed with encoders on each motor to ensure it knows its exact position. When aligning the beam, this enables the best position to be automatically found and remembered so optimal alignment can be easily recovered.
Safety
Manual alignment of X-ray sources often requires direct access to knobs and screws inside the radiation safety enclosure. This represents a risk of exposure to X-ray radiation and thus is often left to service engineers to perform. The iOM device allows fully remote alignment of the X-ray optic while the X-ray safety enclosure is safely interlocked.
Simplicity
X-ray source alignment has never been easier with the iOM device attached to your source. The X-ray optic can be aligned either using manual point and click to point the beam at the sample or automatic alignment for maximum intensity in just a few minutes.
More independence
The iOM gives unprecedented control over the optic position, all controlled via a software interface. This means that service engineers no longer need to be present on-site to accomplish full optic alignment. Either use our automatic routine or adjust the alignment yourself with an easy-to-use, intuitive software interface. Still not confident? Our service engineers can step in and perform alignment and source diagnostics over the internet, minimizing your service costs.
CrysAlisᴾʳᵒ Tip: How To Set Up Variable Temperature Measurements
In this tutorial, learn how to set up and run a variable temperature measurement series using CrysAlisᴾʳᵒ. This step-by-step walkthrough covers everything from crystal mounting and centering to strategy setup and automated data collection across multiple temperature points.
You’ll see how to:
Mount and precisely center your crystal using the goniometer
Perform screening to evaluate crystal quality and unit cell parameters
Run a pre-experiment and generate data collection strategies
Create multiple measurement strategies for different symmetry conditions
Configure automated temperature steps and measurement sequences
Export and reuse experiment setups for efficiency
Monitor, stop, and resume multi-step experiments
This guide is perfect for crystallographers and researchers who want to streamline temperature-dependent studies and improve experiment reproducibility using CrysAlisᴾʳᵒ.
Researchers from Australia, India, and the US observed framework short-range order in the lithium superionic conductor, Li16.2(1)In9.00(2)Sn1.10(1)O23.8 (LISO), using neutron diffraction, X-ray 3D-ΔPDF, and Monte Carlo simulations.
February 27, 2026
Researchers from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Sweden report the 1.9 Å crystal structure byInCelluloEDof a crystal of the HEX-1 protein from the fungus Magnaporthe grisea inside an insect cell.
March 31, 2026
Researchers from the US physically characterized and determined the vibrational and electronic properties of Np2O5via experimental spectroscopy and first-principles calculations.
May 22, 2026
Scientists from Northwestern University synthesized and characterized high-entropy 1D halide perovskite piezoelectricsusing megalibrary synthesis, rapid nonlinear optical screening, and a variety of electron and X-ray scattering methods.
Claudia de Rham’s The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity is equal parts poignant memoir and hands-on guide to the principles of theoretical physics. One of the world’s most influential theoretical physicists, de Rham interweaves anecdotes about her personal experiences with those about her professional ones. This delicate balance enhances the book and helps curate meaningful context for de Rham’s scientific breakthroughs understanding the nature of gravity and how to describe it.
De Rham describes her multicultural upbringing, her pursuit of her childhood dream of astronaut candidacy, and the challenges of balancing a personal and professional relationship with a fellow academic partner. De Rham’s prose is almost lyrical in its effortless combination of personal experience with professional discovery. The author is not an astronaut; she is a professor at Imperial College London where she is also director of the Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics. Yet her ability to build suspense and capture the reader as she describes the many, many stages of her astronaut candidacy is deeply compelling. The reader can’t help but root for de Rham as she passes physical test after psychological test after scientific test, even knowing eventually she must fail one. When that failure is a simple tuberculosis screen, the heartbreak is palpable.
However, as she does with every personal anecdote in the book, de Rham ties her failed pursuit of traveling to space back to gravity. Gravity, at least on Earth, is always described as a feature of falling. And failure is often likened to falling. When someone fails, we say they “fell on their face.” De Rham posits that failing, like falling, like gravity, is an intrinsic piece of life in our universe. Everybody fails, everybody falls, no one is stronger than the force of gravity. Just because de Rham didn’t become an astronaut doesn’t mean she gave up, or that her pursuit of understanding gravity was any less meaningful. It just meant an adjustment in her professional trajectory and a re-assessment of what came next.
De Rham never glosses over the challenges she has faced as a woman in the male-dominated field of theoretical physics, but she doesn’t let those negative experiences define the narrative. The book is first and foremost filled with a sense of wonder and passion for understanding the fundamental force of gravity in our universe. The result is a book that is equally inspirational and aspirational, a joy to read.
