Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Single crystal X-ray crystallography is a technique that allows researchers to determine the three dimensional structure of molecules. Understanding three-dimensional structure is important to allow scientists in several different areas to understand how molecules and related ionic materials function and then to design totally new substances for a wide variety of practical applications. The present request for funding will allow researchers at the University of Waterloo and nearby academic insitutions as well as industrial laboratories to maintain a state-of-the-art research facility at the University of Waterloo for determination of molecular structure. Funding of this facility will have a very positive impact on several areas of basic science as well as on very practical applications in the areas of new electronic materials, new pharmaceuticals and potentially break-through technologies in quantum computer design.