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Cambridge Structural Database Workshop
Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia March, 3rd and 4th, 2010 |
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Zagreb, March, 8th, 2010, POST FESTUM
Dear participants,
I believe that I speak on behalf of all the participants, when saying that the presentations, demonstrations and hands-on sessions were well prepared and delivered, and that the database and its huge potential were presented in an efficient and easily understandable manner. The feedback that I have received so far both through the survey forms that have been distributed to the participants, and their e-mails, is extremely encouraging, and motivates me to think about the emerging idea to make this workshop a regular event in the future. We had alltogether 30 participants, out of which 19 from Croatia, 4 from Slovenia, 4 from Serbia, 2 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one participant from Macedonia. Most of the participants were graduate and PhD students. Unfortunately, two students cancelled their attendance in the last moment due to private reasons. However, as the workshop was held at the Ruđer Bošković Institute where we have a large community of structural chemists, we were pleased to welcome few "unofficial" participants that shared our enthousiasm, and contributed to the success of the workshop by their attendance, questions and comments. I thank you again, wish you all a very successful career, and hope to see you soon, maybe at the next CSD workshop, somewhere in Croatia.
Yours faithfully, Aleksandar Višnjevac
The Cambridge Structural Database Workshop is organized jointly by The National Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia, Ruđer Bošković Institute and Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC). It is intended primarily to the postgraduate and PhD students from the universities and public institutes in the Republic of Croatia and other SEE countries. Its aim is to get the students acquainted with the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD), by far the largest and most important database of the crystal structures in the world, as well to exemplify more advanced use of the tools and software for the database search. By the decisions of their respective faculty councils, the workshop is included into the ECTS system of two postgraduate courses at the Faculty of Science, and at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the University of Zagreb.
The workshop will take place at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia (Building 1, lecture room at the ground floor) over two days (March, 3rd and 4th, 2010). The official language of the workshop is English. The organizer will provide computers for the practical sessions for all participants on the "work in pairs" principle.
ABOUT THE CCDC The CCDC is a non-profit, charitable institution whose objectives are the general advancement and promotion of the science of chemistry and crystallography for the public benefit. It is located on the Chemistry Campus of the University of Cambridge, and serves the scientific community through the acquisition, evaluation, dissemination and use of the world's output of small molecule crystal structures by:
The CCDC also sponsors international scientific awards for younger scientists. CCDC Prizes are awarded for original research in chemical crystallography and applications of small-molecule crystallographic information in, e.g., structural chemistry, molecular modelling, materials design, structural biology or chemical informatics.
ABOUT THE CAMBRIDGE STRUCTURAL DATABASE (CSD)
The Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) is the principal product of the CCDC and contains the results of X-ray and neutron diffraction analyses of almost half a million small molecule organic and metal-organic crystal structures. The CSD is fully retrospective of the published literature and also contains directly deposited data that are not available elsewhere. The 3D structure, bibliographic and crystallographic information provided in the CIF are thoroughly validated and are supplemented with additional data abstracted from the publication citing the structure. The Cambridge Structural Database System (CSDS) includes the database in addition to software components that enable search, analysis and exploration of the data. These components and their functions are listed below:
The page was updated on 11.03.2010
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Let
me take this opportunity to thank you all for your interest, attendance and
active participation to the Cambridge Structural Database Workshop, held
at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, March, 3rd and 4th, 2010. The
lecturers, Gary Battle and Tracy Allgood gave us a comprehensive overview of the
Cambridge Structural Database by presenting the CCDC, the database itself, as
well as the powerful software distributed by the CCDC to its users, which
enables a detailed insight into the enormous body of knowledge accumulated in
this remarkable database. The intensive afternoon hands-on sessions gave us the
opportunity to try, ourselves, the features that were presented during the
morning demonstrations. First day was dedicated to the basics of the CSD system,
and the second day was dedicated to more advanced uses of the database and the
corresponding software tools. Thus, the workshop was, in my opinion, useful to
both those of you having previous experience with the CSD, as well as to those
who encountered this database for the first time. I strongly believe that the
results will be both spreading the use of the CSD throughout of the academic
community in the region, as well as enhanced use of the advanced features by
those who already are using the CSD in their labs. 
