I'm deeply saddened by this news. I still cherish the memory of my interaction with George during my PhD studies. He was incredibly humble, taking the time to sit with me and review my data at an ACA conference. Jobichen Chacko On Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 08:45:24 PM GMT+10, Garib Murshudov <[email protected]> wrote: Very sad day for crystallography. George was one of the giants of crystallography. It is the end of an era. We will miss him.
On 21 Feb 2025, at 22:21, Isabel Uson <[email protected]> wrote: CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the LMB: [email protected]. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If you think this is a phishing email, please forward it to [email protected] -- Dear Colleagues, it is with a heavy heart, that we must announce the passing of GeorgeMichael Sheldrick.Everyone in crystallography knows George as a giant in the development ofcomputing methods despite his unassuming manner. His SHELX programs forstructure solution and refinement have shaped the field and their use has beenkey to innumerable projects. The same is valid for his contribution to dataprocessing and analysis in the programs he wrote for Bruker detectors. Onlythose young to crystallography will have missed that while typically our papersare scored by the impact factor of a journal, one paper of George rocketed theimpact factor of the journal Acta Crystallographica A from 2.05 to 54,surpassing that of Science, Nature or Cell in the year 2010. This establisheshow many scientific projects must have been aided by George´s insightful work andbright solutions.Those of us who have had the privilege to meet George in person also knowhim for his passion for problem solving, originality, sense of humour and deephumanity. George has touched the lives and careers of so many group members, providinga work environment that was simultaneously sheltered and free. He was alwaysreceptive to our ideas, encouraging our independence, providing the means tosupport them and giving us credit for what we accomplished. At the same time,we were spared the financial worries or conflicts attached to any institute. IfGoethe was right in writing that character is built in the tempest of lifewhile talent requires the calm, George shaped the optimal environment todevelop our talents. An unusual trait of George is that he always pondered whatpeople said, not who said it. Experience shows that humans are more ready tovalue what their friends, allies and referents state as being correct andsearch for reasons why their competition must be wrong! This lack of prejudicemay explain why George´s research group was always most diverse: he gaveeveryone fair opportunities.In lectures, talks or conversations, George would explain complicatedconcepts making them come across as compellingly simple. His teaching would alwaysprompt critical thinking, as when he faked a nuclear explosion producing amushroom in his chemistry lecture with experiments. This was the 80´s and halfof the audience started an im promptu demonstration against nuclearpower before being absorbed in the debate of why this was impossible and theanalysis of what experiment had really taken place. Working with George was inspiring and fun, it covered a broad range ofinterests in chemistry, geology and biology evolving along the years. In Cambridge and Göttingen, Georgeclosely supervised more than a hundred theses. Former students andco-workers would frequently stop in Göttingen and pop up to join the coffeetime, where daily group discussions would take place. Many of us have kept intouch ever since, resorted to him for advice or just for the pleasure ofdiscussing science and puzzling problems.George Sheldrick will be missed. Regine Herbst-Irmer and Isabel Usón Ifyou would like to express your condolences to George´s family, please use the following emailaddress: [email protected] -- ICREA Res. Prof. Isabel Usón Crystallographic Methods Department of Structural and Molecular Biology, Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona, Spanish Research Council; Barcelona Science Park, Helix Building, 08028 Barcelona (Spain) http://chango.ibmb.csic.es/ARCIMBOLDO http://shelx.uni-goettingen.de To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/
