Professor Simon Coles

Profile

Professor Simon Coles’ research interests span three themes: crystallography, structural chemistry and digital chemistry.

He is Director of both the National Crystallography Service (NCS) and the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) programme.

The NCS provides data collection and crystal structure analysis for the UK chemistry community. It also performs projects based on more advanced techniques, involving a dedicated team of experts employing cutting-edge techniques and the use of very high-powered laboratory diffractometers or the UK synchrotron, Diamond.

Over more than three decades Simon has built a world-leading operation that specialises in dealing with the toughest crystallographic challenges that cause problems for routine facilities. The NCS has the most powerful single crystal X-ray facilities available worldwide and is now driving the application of electron diffraction to crystal structure solution. Between them these techniques enable the study of the smallest crystals possible and provide one of the highest throughput chemical crystallography facilities in the world. With over 1,000 publications and ranking 20th highest contributor of all time to the Cambridge Structural Database, Simon and the NCS are among the most prolific crystallographers in the world today.

Simon completed a PhD in structural systematics and molecular modelling at the University of Wales, Cardiff, then held a postdoctoral appointment with the Royal Institution, based at the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory. There he helped build the world’s first synchrotron Small Molecule Single Crystal beamline, 9.8. Simon moved to the University of Southampton in 1998 and is now Professor of Structural Chemistry.