The Supramolecular symposium at the ACA 2009 meeting in Toronto covered three half-day sessions and offered considerable breadth and depth as twenty-three speakers (plus over twenty posters) from seven nations, presented work on intermolecular forces, non-covalent assembly, crystal growth, materials design, pharmaceuticals, and database studies. 

The symposium was anchored by presentations from four featured speakers.  Gautam Desiraju offered an insightful look at polymorphism and at structures with high Z' numbers, Pierangelo Metrangolo presented an elegant overview of fundamentals and applications of halogen bonding, James Wuest described how to engineer non-covalent motifs and structural features geared primarily towards host-guest chemistry, and Joel Bernstein examined the interplay between co-crystallization reactions and the appearance of hitherto unknown polymorphs.

The accompanying poster session showed that there is a very healthy and productive new generation eager to continue to expand the boundaries and to deepen our understanding of this multidisciplinary field.  The worthy winner of the CrystEngComm Poster Prize was Jessica Urbelis, Georgetown University.

Christer Aakeröy