Philosophical Magazine

From Bragg to the Ultrafast: A Century of Crystallographic Revolution

From Bragg to the Ultrafast: A Century of Crystallographic Revolution 

Philosophical Magazine, in conjunction with guest advisors Professor Ding-Shyue (Jerry) Yang and Professor Ognjen Miljanic of the University of Houston, is pleased to announce a new article collection dedicated to advances in crystallography.  

Crystallography has been a mainstay of scientific advancement for over a century, from the Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded consecutively in 1914 and 1915 to today's work in ultrafast techniques. Elucidating the DNA double helix, revealing the structure of ferrocene, and numerous other discoveries have demonstrated how crystallography is fundamental to our understanding of matter on a molecular level. Philosophical Magazine - a journal edited by W.L. Bragg for 29 years - is pleased to celebrate the field with this article collection. 

The field has progressed dramatically from the early days of examining simple salt lattices to modern analysis of complex molecular structures. Emerging techniques such as 3D electron diffraction, crystalline sponge methods, X-ray free electron lasers, and quantum crystallography are transforming our approach to structural determination.  

The aim of this collection is to showcase new advancements being made in crystallography, and the wide range of applications and challenges that innovative methods can address. From optimising materials for energy storage and materials engineering, to structural biology and drug discovery, we are accepting submissions across the sciences that demonstrate the broad reach of crystallography. This collection will consider review articles, perspectives, editorials, original research, and interview pieces, among other article types. 

Suitable themes for submissions can include, but are not limited to:  

• Applications of emerging diffraction techniques 

• Instrumentation, methodology, and technique developments 

• Quantum behaviours 

• Computational and theoretical crystallography 

• Materials science and engineering applications 

• Structural biology and protein crystallography 

• Medical crystallography 

• Forensic crystallography 

• Food science applications 

• Chemical crystallography 

Key Words:

Crystal, Lattice, X-ray crystallography, Crystalline, Diffraction, Bragg, Interdisciplinary

Manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 28th November 2026.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, selecting 'Article Collection: Crystallography' from the drop-down menu for consideration in this Article Collection. For any questions, please contact Edward Spofford at Edward.Spofford.GB1@tandf.co.uk.

Meet the Guest Advisors

Ding-Shyue (Jerry) Yang: Jerry is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, also affiliated with Physics, at the University of Houston (TX, USA). He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Caltech (CA, USA) under the supervision of the late Nobel laureate Ahmed Zewail. He has been involved in the early development of ultrafast electron diffraction for condensed matter and constructed the first ultrafast scanning electron microscope. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2017. His research interests include ultrafast dynamics of novel energy materials and interfacial energy- and charge-transfer dynamics of solid‒molecule systems.

Ognjen Š. Miljanić: For the past 18 years, Ognjen has been a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Houston. His research interests are in the general areas of supramolecular and organic chemistry, as well as porous materials. Prior to his appointment at the University of Houston, he earned a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley (CA, USA) with Peter Vollhardt, and completed a postdoc with Professor Fraser Stoddart at University of California, Los Angeles (CA, USA).