The Woodlands, TX – January 7, 2009. Rigaku Americas Corporation today announced that the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Texas State University has purchased a Rigaku SCXmini™ benchtop small molecule X-ray diffraction (XRD) crystallography instrument for Cyber-enabled Small Molecule Structure Analysis for Research and Educational Purposes as funded by a Major Research Instrumentation program ( MRI) grant from the National Science Foundation ( NSF).

A Rigaku SCXmini™ X-ray crystallography system was chosen by Prof. Benjamin Martin (Principal Investigator), Prof. Gary Beall (co-PI), Prof. Michael Blanda (Co-PI), and Prof. Debra Feakes (Co-PI) to enhance the X-ray facilities of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in support of education and research at Texas State and a consortium of “cyber-enabled” collaborators from Lamar University, San Antonio College, Texas Lutheran University and Sam Houston State University. The SCXmini™ X-ray diffractometer will be employed to strengthen research endeavors and spark new explorations in areas involving: sulfide and selenide materials, solid state linkage isomerism and ligand substitution in transition metal cyanide complexes, conformational isomers of immobilized calix[6]arenes, polyhedral borane anions, sulfido-bridged iron compounds and magnetostructural studies of Ni(II) dimers, and the preparation of titanium complexes as well as a variety of other research topics.

SCXmini Crystallography System

In a recent interview, Professors Martin and Beall explained that the cyber-enabled collaboration approach will enable a group of Texas institutions (which have high percentages of traditionally underrepresented student populations) to have access to single crystal X-ray diffraction for both teaching and research. Commenting on the purchase from Rigaku’s perspective, Tom McNulty, VP Materials Analysis, added that “what excites Rigaku about the SCXmini™, within the context of the collaboration sponsored by Texas State, is the delivery of a broad range of experimental capabilities to a wide variety of users. Rigaku has always envisioned the SCXmini™ playing a key role in the education of undergraduate students and as a walk-up molecular structure tool for graduate students and postdocs.”

About Texas State University Authorized by the Texas Legislature in 1899, Texas State University has grown from a small teacher preparation institution to a major, multipurpose university with over 29,000 students. Its 457 acre main campus is in San Marcos, TX – a growing community of 50,000 people located about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Situated on the edge of the Texas Hill Country, where black land prairies roll into beautiful hills, Texas State enjoys a setting that is unique among Texas universities. Within these idyllic surroundings, Texas State’s students choose from 100 bachelor’s, 88 master’s and 8 doctoral degree programs offered by the following colleges: Applied Arts, McCoy College of Business Administration, Education, Fine Arts and Communication, Health Professions, Liberal Arts, Science, University College and the Graduate College. With a significant international representation and a 32% ethnic minority demographic, diversity is a hallmark of Texas State.