Dr. Ross Angel has been a research crystallographer for his entire scientific career since he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a PhD in Mineral Sciences in 1985. He learned high-pressure diffraction from Larry Finger and Bob Hazen as a post-doc at the Geophysical Laboratory in Washington DC, before establishing in 1988 his own laboratory at University College London. In 1994 he was appointed staff crystallographer at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Bayreuth where he further developed high-pressure single-crystal diffraction methods. In 2001 he founded with Prof. NL Ross the Virginia Tech Crystallography Laboratory, an inter-disciplinary facility for the chemistry, biology and geoscience departments of Virginia Tech that became the US demonstration facility for Oxford Diffraction for more than a decade. Since 2011 he has held several research positions in Italy and is currently a Director of Research at the National Research Centre of Italy (CNR).
The focus of Dr. Angel’s research has been to understand the structure-property relationships of key industrial and geological materials with the aim of providing the basis for rationale materials design and understanding geological processes. He has developed and established novel methods for single-crystal diffraction at extreme conditions in order to characterize and understand the fundamental relationship between the atomic-scale structures and properties of materials. The software that he has developed for diffractometer control and processing of data is distributed freely from www.rossangel.net and is in use by many research groups world-wide.
Prof. Dr. Elena Boldyreva graduated from Novosibirsk State University in 1982. She obtained her Ph.D. in physical chemistry (in 1988) and then her Dr.Sci. in solid-state chemistry (in 2000) at the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk). She was affiliated with this Institute until 2018, after what she moved to Boreskov Institute of Catalysis Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk). Since 1982 she is also employed by the Novosibirsk State University, where she was the Head of the Chair of Solid State Chemistry for over 15 years and is presently a professor at the Chair of Solid State Chemistry and the Head of a Master program in Physico-chemical methods of studying condensed phases. From 1990 to 1999 Elena Boldyreva has spent many research terms in Germany, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland being supported by various Foundations, including DFG, CNRS, CNR, RSC, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She keeps many research contacts throughout the Russian Federation and internationally.
Elena Boldyreva is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of physical chemistry, solid state chemistry, crystallography, physical pharmacy, materials sciences, mechanochemistry, high-pressure and cryogenic studies, X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic studies, also using synchrotron radiation and neutron facilities (at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facilities and Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble, France, Paul-Sherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, Hahn-Meitner Institute and BESSY, Berlin, Germany, Diamond Light Source, UK).
Elena Boldyreva is a member of the Academia Europea, a corresponding member of the Academy of sciences and arts of Slovenia and an honorary Dr. Sci. of the University of Edinburgh. In 2007 Elena has received an award from the European Society of Applied Physical Chemistry Eurostar-Science. She has published over 350 original papers and reviews, almost 20 monographs and holds 20 patents.
A member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Crystallography (2008 – 2014), a member of many research societies and committees. The Chair of the first Bragg Prize Committee (2020), was earlier a member of the Ewald and Perutz Prizes Committees. Commissioning Editor in Chemical Crystallography of the IUCr Journals, Specialty Chief Editor in Solid State Chemistry of Fronyiers in Chemistry, a member of the Editorial Boards of CrystEngComm, Z. fuer Kristallographie, Pharmaceutics, High Pressure Research. J. Thernal Analysis and Calorimetry.
A member of the President Council of Science and Education (2012 – 2014) and of the Advisory Scientific Council of the Ministry of Science and Education (2014 – 2016) of Russian Federation.
Dr. Pierre Le Maguerès obtained a Ph.D. in physical chemistry and small molecule crystallography at the University of Rennes (France) in 1995, working under Dr. Lahcene Ouahab on the synthesis and analysis of molecular materials combining inorganic polyoxometalates and organic cation radicals based on tetrathiofulvalene derivatives. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Le Magueres worked as a postdoctoral researcher with renowned Prof. Jay Kochi at the University of Houston, where he pursued his work on the synthesis and X-ray characterization of air-sensitive cation radicals and charge transfer complexes. In 2000, deciding to broaden his horizons and learn protein crystallography, Dr. Le Magueres joined the biochemistry department at the University of Houston and worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Kurt Krause on the design and X-ray characterization of potential new inhibitors for alanine racemase, a protein essential for the growth of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Dr. Le Magueres was hired in 2004 as a protein crystallographer in the Life Sciences department at Rigaku. After 14 years in protein crystallography, he shifted to a position as a small molecule crystallographer at Rigaku Americas Corporation in The Woodlands, TX. While still helping with protein crystallography if needed, Dr Le Magueres’ duties are now centered on the analysis of small molecule samples and the development of hardware and software products at Rigaku for small molecule crystallography.
Dr. Stanislav Sinogeikin obtained a Ph.D. in Geophysics / Mineral Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1999 working with Prof. Jay Bass. His work focused on measuring elastic properties of minerals and engineering materials at high pressures and temperatures using Brillouin spectroscopy and x-ray techniques. After graduation, as a Visiting Assistant Professor / Visiting scholar at UIUC, he continued developing high pressure techniques for elasticity measurements in extreme conditions. One of the examples of such developments is the unique online Brillouin system integrated with synchrotron radiation for simultaneous x-ray density and acoustic velocity measurements.
In 2006 Dr. Sinogeikin joined High Pressure Collaborative Access Team (HPCAT) located at Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. During his 12 years at HPCAT as a Beamline scientist and later as an Associate Director, he developed various Diamond Anvil Cells, custom high-pressure cryostats, devices for remote pressure control in Diamond Cells at high and low temperatures with one or two membranes, development of time resolved / dynamic compression techniques with Diamond Anvil Cell, online optical (e.g. ruby) systems, laser drilling-micromachining system ...
In 2009 Dr. Sinogeikin also created a company, Diamond Anvil Cell Tools, which made supporting equipment for high pressure research commercially available to a broader community. Diamond Anvil Cell Tools worked closely with scientists at different universities and national laboratories to develop new high-pressure hardware. For instance, the SSDAC-80 (Spherical Seat Diamond Anvil Cell with 80 degrees symmetric X-ray opening) with double membrane (compression - decompression) pressure control was first developed for the X-ray diffractometer at AMES Laboratory and went on to become one of the most popular DACs for single-crystal x-ray diffraction. In 2018 Dr. Sinogeikin left HPCAT and reorganized the company into DAC Tools LLC which is now developing and manufacturing custom equipment for high pressure at high/low temperature research.
Dr. Christophe Thessieu is one of the founders of Almax easyLab. Christophe oversees the commercial and technical activities of Almax easyLab for all matters related to Instrumentation ranging from high pressure cells (piston cylinder, diamond anvil cells) as well as devices related to high pressure techniques such as EDM drilling machine, optical devices to measure pressure and all related accessories. After graduating from Paris University in Solid States physics, Christophe obtained his PhD in Physics working on 3D itinerant magnetic systems investigating the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity when such systems are tuned by applied pressure and temperature. Following on from these first steps with high pressure techniques, Christophe kept developing his high pressure experience whilst doing a Post Doc in Japan working with NMR and NQR techniques under pressure with both piston cylinder and diamond anvil cells.
In 1999, Christophe moved from Academia to the corporate world when he was recruited by Oxford Instruments in the United Kingdom. This transformational phase saw Christophe covering various nurturing roles from project engineering, project management to finally become product manager for the Ultra Low Temperature (ULT) product range in the Marketing Department. After obtaining his MBA, Christophe co-created easyLab Technologies in 2004 which then become Almax easyLab in 2013. For him the most exciting part is to head and drive a team of talented technicians, engineers and PhD scientists to match the requirements and needs of the high pressure researchers and what Almax easyLab can offer.
Dr. James Walsh obtained a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Manchester (UK) in 2014, working with Prof. David Collison on the synthesis of low nuclearity molecular nanomagnets to study magnetic exchange between highly anisotropic ions. Upon graduating, he worked for a few months as a postdoc with Dr. Jacob Overgaard at Aarhus University (Denmark) working on experimental charge density studies of single-molecule magnets. From 2015 to 2019, Dr. Walsh worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Danna Freedman at Northwestern University (USA). It was under her guidance and encouragement that he made the switch into solid-state chemistry, and specifically high-pressure synthesis through a campus collaboration with mineralogist Prof. Steve Jacobsen. In 2019, he moved to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to start his own group working in the area of high-pressure chemistry. He is a very proud owner of a Rigaku Synergy-S, which he uses for both ambient and high-pressure crystallography of small molecules and solid-state compounds.
Fraser White began his career as a crystallographer under the tutelage of Professor Simon Parsons in the Chemistry department at the Univeristy of Edinburgh in 2004. Following completion of his PhD, he stayed at Edinburgh, accepting the position of staff crystallographer tasked with running the departmental X-ray crystallography service. During this time Fraser solved and refined over 1000 structures for a variety of different sample chemistries and gained broad experience in solving crystallographic problems. After several years in this role, Fraser first joined Agilent technologies in 2011 as an applications scientist based in Oxfordshire and remained with the company through the acquisition of Agilent’s single crystal business by Rigaku in 2015. Now in the role of product marketing manager for Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, Fraser is involved in the scientific aspects of single-crystal product marketing.
Dr. Jakub Wojciechowski is an application scientist working in the Rigaku Europe SE office based in Germany. Before Jakub joined Rigaku, he spent seven years as a crystallographer, research scientist and lecturer at the Łódź University of Technology in, Łódź, Poland. During this period, Jakub regularly collaborated with synthetic chemists, very often providing crucial information for publications, which is absolute structure results. Jakub is now responsible for supporting Rigaku’s clients in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region, helping them with data collection and processing, and also crystal structure publication.
Dr. Sci. Boris A. Zakharov obtained his Ph.D. in solid state chemistry from the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry SB RAS at Novosibirsk State University in 2013 (supervisor – Prof. E.V. Boldyreva) and a Dr. Sci. in crystallography and crystal physics (Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography RAS, Moscow, 2020). In 2011-2018, he was employed by the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry SB RAS. Since 2018 he has been a senior researcher at Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS. He has been involved in small-molecule high-pressure crystallography since 2010 and his current research interests are related to studying processes in molecular crystals at different temperatures, pressures, and under irradiation (photocrystallography). He has extensive experience in high-pressure studies conducted on Rigaku-Oxford Diffraction diffractometers as well as at synchrotron beamlines.