Dr Adam Sapnik (Materials Science PhD 2018) has been awarded the British Crystallographic Association’s prize in Physical Crystallography 2026. 

The award is given every two years and is “awarded for the best recently published work by a person in the early stages of their career, working in the field of Physical Crystallography, whose research is expected to make a significant impact in the field”.

Adam was awarded the prize for his contributions to the field of amorphous metal–organic frameworks and the development of advanced total scattering methods. As part of the award, he was invited to deliver a lecture at the British Crystallographic Association’s Spring Meeting held at the University of Leeds. 

Adam was presented with the award by Dr Lewis Owen, joint recipient of the prize in 2024 and a former Research Fellow at Gonville & Caius College. Dr Owen is chair of the Physical Crystallography Group of the BCA.

Adam completed his PhD in Materials Science ('Extreme disorder in metal–organic frameworks') in 2022, and is now a postdoctoral researcher in Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). Prior to this, he studied Chemistry (MChem) at the University of Oxford (Balliol College) 2014–18.

Some recent publications by Adam are linked below:

Structure of a DNA-Stabilized Ag₁₆Cl₂ Nanocluster in Solution

High-quality ultra-fast total scattering and pair distribution function data using an X-ray free-electron laser

Trapping a Metastable Node in an Amorphous Metal–Organic Framework

Direct synthesis of amorphous metal–organic frameworks from nanoclusters