Ever wondered what it’s like to teach chemistry in a university in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country ranked 186/187 in the Human Development Index? And what’s the point? How about undertaking a Ph.D. there? You’re kidding right? Well, no. The CCDC has been involved in capacity building in crystallography and chemistry in Africa for a number of years, with initiatives in the DR Congo, Kenya and Senegal. This has involved extensive collaboration and support from IUCr, IUPAC, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Kenya Chemical Society, Seeding Labs, Novartis and of course the ACS COMP technical division & ACS Committee on International Activities. Our focus has been on the use of computers in teaching chemistry – particularly the use of crystal structures, training well over 100 trainers in the use of computational resources and teaching approaches. This has acted as the starting point for novel research, particularly in the laboratory of Professor Zéphyrin Yav at the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And it’s research that makes a difference – both to the scientists and to the country. Plans are also already in place for African OpenLabs in 2016 in Benin and Burkina-Faso, as well as the first pan-African crystallography conference to be held in October 2016 at the University of Dschang in Cameroon. This presentation, timed to coincide with the end of the 50th anniversary year of the Cambridge Structural Database, will look at the challenges, rewards, values, contrasts and fun of collaborating and doing computational structural chemistry research across the most diverse of environments.

Experiences in chemical and crystallographic education and research in the developing world

251st National Meeting (2016)

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