Speaker
Suzanna Ward
(The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Cambridge, UK)
Description
Crystallography is extremely powerful in research and education for two key reasons. Firstly, it
is often described as the ‘gold standard’ characterization technique because it can provide
definitive proof of the structure of chemical compounds. Secondly, the crystallographic
community itself is remarkable in terms of exemplary data sharing practices which have allowed
scientists worldwide to gain new insights and knowledge from the collaborative collection of
data.
This presentation will look at how crystallographic data is curated and shared through a variety
of databases including the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), a collection of nearly one
million organic and metal-organic crystal structures. We will detail the methods that we use to
facilitate data deposition, storage and accessibility, and describe the workflows that we have in
place to manage data at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC). We will then go
on to highlight how you can use the CSD and CCDC services to improve and validate your own
structural data and explore how structural data can be used in education.
Finally, we will celebrate crystallography from the Pan African Community by highlighting their
contributions to the CSD before reflecting on how we could further support this community.
Primary author
Suzanna Ward
(The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Cambridge, UK)
