Honoring the legacy of George Sheldrick: Insights from the Cambridge Structural Database.
- 1Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, 12 Union Road, Cambridge CB2 1EZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract
George M. Sheldrick (1942-2025) transformed the fields of crystallography and structural chemistry. He was a remarkable researcher and educator and developed the SHELX program suite, which will continue to teach and make accessible structural determination of chemical structures at an international level. From the perspective of the Cambridge Structural Database [Groom et al., "The Cambridge Structural Database," Acta Crystallogr., Sect. B 72(2), 171-179 (2016)] (CSD), Sheldrick's impact can be seen through his direct contribution of more than 800 crystal structures encompassing a broad range of chemistry, as well as through the widespread adoption of SHELX for crystal structure solution and refinement. For several decades, SHELX has been one of the most widely used software suites used by crystallographers depositing structures in the CSD and has played a central role in the determination of a substantial proportion of the structures contained within the database. Beyond his scientific achievements, Sheldrick was a gifted teacher and mentor whose influence extended across generations of crystallographers worldwide. In this contribution, we reflect on George Sheldrick's career and legacy from the perspective of the CSD, highlighting both his personal contributions to the database and the enduring impact of the SHELX programs on crystallography.
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BibTeX
@article{ward2026honoring,
title = {{Honoring the legacy of George Sheldrick: Insights from the Cambridge Structural Database.}},
author = {Suzanna C Ward and Caroline J E Davies-Brooks and Natalie T Johnson and Matthew P Lightfoot and Seth B Wiggin},
journal = {Structural dynamics (Melville, N.Y.)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1063/4.0001232},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948841},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Honoring the legacy of George Sheldrick: Insights from the Cambridge Structural Database.
AU - Suzanna C Ward
AU - Caroline J E Davies-Brooks
AU - Natalie T Johnson
AU - Matthew P Lightfoot
AU - Seth B Wiggin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Structural dynamics (Melville, N.Y.)
DO - 10.1063/4.0001232
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948841
AB - George M. Sheldrick (1942-2025) transformed the fields of crystallography and structural chemistry. He was a remarkable researcher and educator and developed the SHELX program suite, which will continue to teach and make accessible structural determination of chemical structures at an international level. From the perspective of the Cambridge Structural Database [Groom et al., "The Cambridge Structural Database," Acta Crystallogr., Sect. B 72(2), 171-179 (2016)] (CSD), Sheldrick's impact can be seen through his direct contribution of more than 800 crystal structures encompassing a broad range of chemistry, as well as through the widespread adoption of SHELX for crystal structure solution and refinement. For several decades, SHELX has been one of the most widely used software suites used by crystallographers depositing structures in the CSD and has played a central role in the determination of a substantial proportion of the structures contained within the database. Beyond his scientific achievements, Sheldrick was a gifted teacher and mentor whose influence extended across generations of crystallographers worldwide. In this contribution, we reflect on George Sheldrick's career and legacy from the perspective of the CSD, highlighting both his personal contributions to the database and the enduring impact of the SHELX programs on crystallography.
SN - 2329-7778
ER -