Public Lecture: X-ray Crystallography: From invisibility to infinity

Date: Aug 20, 2019 | Faculties, Faculty of Science, News

Friday, 6 September 2019
12:00 – 13:00
Chinua Achebe Auditorium, Level 6, UJ
Library, Kingsway Campus (APK)

About the talk: X-ray crystallography is a combined Chemistry/ Physics technique for determining the three-dimensional structure of molecules, from simple small molecules to complex biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. It is an extremely powerful tool in the determination of and the interpretation of the three-dimensional structure of a molecule at the atomic level. Data is collected by diffracting X-rays, usually from a single crystal, but also from polycrystalline powdered materials, which have an ordered, regularly repeating arrangement of atoms. Based on the diffraction pattern obtained from this X-ray scattering off the regularly repeating assembly of molecules or atoms in the crystal, the electron density (and thus atomic positions) can be reconstructed. This public lecture will enlighten listeners to this vastly critical field of Chemistry/ Physics and demonstrate how crucial the technique itself is, as
well as the indispensable role women have played in this field who have unobtrusively forged and furthered the knowledge of
the science we know and accept today.

About the speaker: Dr Charmaine Arderne is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Sciences. She received her PhD in Chemistry in 2011 from UJ specialized in Chemical Crystallography. She is currently the only female crystallographer at UJ and is one of only three women crystallographers in Gauteng. She is passionate about all things Chemistry related and was awarded the 2015 Faculty of Science Teaching Award for Innovative Teaching with Technology.