When Dr. Douglas Dorset encountered difficulties solving the structures of certain materials used in the petroleum industry, he knew where to go for help.

Doug, now a Distinguished Research Associate at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering in Annandale NJ, is a former Hauptman-Woodward Principal Research Scientist.  An expert in electron crystallography, he used electron diffraction to study the structures of membrane proteins and lipids, polymers and multi-component linear molecule assemblies, during his 27-year tenure at HWI.  He also collaborated with Herb Hauptman and, in 1975, they were first to apply direct methods of crystal structure determination to electron diffraction data, work that was developed further to demonstrate the generality of this approach, leading to a 1995 monograph on electron crystallography.

Since moving to ExxonMobil in 2000, Doug has been responsible for determining the structures of catalytically-active inorganic materials (e. g., zeolites) that do not form large single crystals.  Instead, they form microcrystalline powders that produce diffraction patterns that are more difficult to interpret.  Although electron diffraction has been useful for determination of dimensions and symmetry, powder x-ray diffraction is the principal data type used to determine these structures.  Doug decided to contact his former colleagues at HWI and was pleased to learn that Drs. Hongliang (Jimmy) Xu and Charles Weeks were adapting their direct-methods computer program SnB for use with powder data.  Initial trials have demonstrated the efficacy of their methodology.

Thus, an old collaboration has been renewed.  Jimmy Xu is testing program modifications that address the problems encountered at ExxonMobil, and Doug Dorset has been instrumental in securing a grant from his employer to support the ongoing work at HWI.