BCA Spring Meeting 2026

The ESCG sessions will take place in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre in the Michael Sadler Building.

The ESCG satellite meeting is an opportunity for all early-stage crystallography researchers, from across the BSG, CCG, PCG and IG, to present their work in a supportive and friendly environment, which will be run by fellow early career scientists.

Chair: Tony Bell (Sheffield Hallam University)

Mechanistic insight into the function of the human CDK-activating kinase

Session Chair: Ashok Menon (University of Warwick)

Keynote: Julia Payne (University of St Andrews)

Exploring Structure-Property Relationships in Organic Inorganic Metal Halides for Optoelectronic Applications

Physical crystallography plays an important role in the transition to a more sustainable society. This session is intended to cover a range of materials with applications within any aspects of energy storage, harvesting and sustainability.

Invited Speaker: Sacha Fop (University of Aberdeen)

Talk Title: A new family of superprotonic conductors

Session Chair: Daren Fearon (Diamond Light Source) and Blake Balcomb (Diamond Light Source)

Keynote: Chris Cooper (University of Surrey)

Talk Title: TBC

How are disease insights feeding into structural biology, and how are structural insights informing clinical strategy? This session focusses on relating patient benefit to biological structure determination and welcomes contributions from industry and academia.

Session Chair: Andrea Laybourn (University of Leeds) and Sam Lewis (Cardiff University and Diamond Light Source)

Keynote: Sarah (Sally) L Price (University College London)

What is needed for the ideal organic crystal structure prediction code? 

The session is interested in all areas of crystal formation, including crystallisation, crystal prediction and crystal engineering.

Session Chair: Judith Howard (Durham University)

Keynote: Bill Clegg (University of Newcastle)

Sheldrick the legend, George the man

The crystallographic world is mourning the loss of George Sheldrick and the BCA will pay its respects and honour him in this session at the 2026 Spring Meeting.  George’s SHELX software has had a huge impact, initially in chemical crystallography but later expanding with great success and popularity for larger biological structures.  We will reflect on his legacy in both scientific and personal arenas.

Invited Speaker: Dietmar Stalke (Göttingen)
Talk title: GMS as a lecturer and supervisor – the somewhat less familiar side

Invited Speaker: Eleanor Dodson (University of York)
Talk title: George’s Protein Epiphany

Invited Speaker: Horst Pushman (OlexSys)
Talk title: From SHELX to Olex2 and beyond – evolving George’s legacy for the next generation of crystallography

Session Chair: Olivia Gittins (Durham University)

Keynote: Mohinder Pal (University of Kent)

Cryo-electron microscopy, tomography and related techniques are allowing for unprecedented detail in our visualization of large structures. This session highlights how these techniques are offering insight into biological machinery.

Session Chair: Nicola Kelly (University of Cambridge)

Keynote: Lucy Clark (University of Birmingham)

Tackling Synthesis-Dependent Structure and Properties in Quantum Materials

A session dedicated to materials where quantum effects, in a general sense, are relevant for the behaviour. This can include various forms of magnetism, spin-orbit coupling, and unusual electronic effects.

Invited Speaker: Struan Simpson (University of Warwick)

Talk title: Leveraging Rigid-Unit Modes to Design New Magnetoelectric Multiferroics

Session Chair: Ines Collings (Natural History Museum)

Keynote: Euan Brechin (University of Edinburgh)

Molecular Iron Oxides

An opportunity to show research related to the crystallography of all compounds that can reasonably be described as functional.

Invited Speaker: Anuradha Pallipurath (University of Leeds)

Talk title: Colour-Changing Materials

Session Chair: Natalie Johnson (CCDC)

Keynote: Gabi Heller (UCL)

Structure determination from diffraction data alone is not always enough to build a full picture of a material and its properties. Complementary techniques, either experimental (e.g. NMR, mass spectrometry) or computational, can provide additional structural information or help in the solution of more challenging structures. In this session we welcome contributions using additional techniques alongside experimental crystallography to gain further structural understanding.

Invited Speaker: Steven Brown (University of Warwick)

Talk title: Solid-State NMR of Pharmaceuticals and Plant Cell Walls

Session Chair: Fanny Nascimento Costa (University of Leeds)

An opportunity to showcase the wide range of research that falls under the general area of chemical crystallography.

Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, Michael Sadler Building

Session Chair:  Lewis Owen (University of Sheffield)
Speaker: Abbie McLaughlin (University of Aberdeen)

Hexagonal Perovskite Derivatives: A New Platform for the Discovery of Fast Oxide Ion Conductors

Speaker: Neil Champness  (University of Birmingham)

Session Chair: Hamish Yeung (University of Birmingham)

Talk Title: TBC

Session Chair: Lauren Hatcher (Cardiff University)

Keynote: Florian Kleemis (RWTH Aachen University)

Fast Quantum Crystallography for Spin-State Determination by X-ray Diffraction

Broadly themed around the investigation of molecular crystals using advanced techniques. Whether this is through quantum crystallography, in-situ techniques, 3D ED, serial crystallography or other emerging techniques.

Invited Speaker: Benjamin Palmer (University of Bristol)

Talk title: Highly Reflective Molecular Crystals in Animal Coloration and Vision

Session Chair: Rachael Wilkinson (University of Leicester)

Nowadays, we use a variety of techniques to investigate biological structures. This open session captures aspects of the modern crystallographer: a multidisciplinary scientist using the right tools to answer important biological questions.

Session Chair: Ben Tragheim (University of Sheffield)

This session is intended for all aspects of physical crystallography in the broadest sense

Session Chair: Daniel Rainer (NCS Southampton)

Keynote: Arianna Lanza (University of Copenhagen)

Electron crystallography: how a wild beam can be tamed to become a reliable multipurpose too

An informative and educational session on what can be achieved from small crystals, showcasing the current possibilities of different methods, radiation types, experimental setups, etc. Intended to increase awareness of possibilities, pitfalls, advantages, and limitations of the different methods and how they are all complementary. As well as talks from the three speakers, the session will include a panel Q&A with all the speakers.

Invited Speaker: Anna Warren (Diamond Light Source, VMXm)

Talk title: Bright Beams and Microcrystals: The Future of Structure Determination at Diamond

aa

Invited Speaker: Ben Coulson (Diamond Light Source, I19)

Talk title: A picture is worth a thousand diffraction spots – using photometry to perform rapid, sample-versatile serial crystallography

Session Chair: Natalie Tatum (Newcastle University)

Keynote: Ed Pyzer-Knap (CSO, Xyme.AI)

Advances in tools for de novo protein design and sequence optimisation, hand-in-hand with structure prediction, have made bespoke proteins accessible for many applications. This session will showcase some of the research questions being answered with targeted protein design, and serve as a primer to those new to the concept.

Session Chair: Tony Bell (Sheffield Hallam University)

Keynote: Dave Keen (ISIS)

Rosalind Franklin used the pair distribution function in her research; how – and why – you should too

PDF is an increasing popular and accessible technique and this session will give an overview of PDF, including its history, development and best practices.

Speaker: TBC

Session Chair: TBC

Biological Structures Group Early Career Prize

The BSG will award a prize to someone who has had an impact in the field of Structural Biology (with an emphasis on crystallography) and recently obtained a personal fellowship, a lectureship or equivalent position.

Chemical Crystallography Group Prize for Younger Scientists
The CCG will award a prize to a younger scientist who has performed original research in the field of chemical crystallography or the application of crystallographic information to structural chemistry.

Physical Crystallography Group Early Career Prize

The Physical Crystallography Prize is awarded for the best recently published work by a person in the early stages of their career, working in the field of Physical Crystallography, whose research is expected to make a significant impact in the field.

Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, Michael Sadler Building

Session Chair: TBC