From June 29 to July 3, 2026, the 4th International Symposium "Non-Covalent Interactions in Synthesis, Catalysis, and Crystal Chemical Design" (NCI-2026) was held in St. Petersburg. Professor Vladislav Blatov and SCTMS Research Assistant Varvara Nikitina participated.V.A. Blatov presented a report entitled ""Topological Analysis of Noncovalent Interactions in Crystals: Methods and Tools," in which he discussed new algorithms and methods implemented in the ToposPro software package specifically for the topological analysis of various types of non-covalent interatomic interactions (hydrogen, halogen, π-stacking, van der Waals). Varvara Nikitina presented a poster presentation, "A New Method for Determining π–π Interactions in Crystal Structures," detailing a method for determining π-stacking interactions in crystals.
"This is our first time participating in this series of conferences, and for us, this is an opportunity to expand the applicability of our methods implemented in ToposPro to the vast world of organic crystals," commented Prof.Vladislav Blatov. "Our participation was prompted by our recently established collaboration with St. Petersburg State University, led by RAS Academician V. Yu. Kukushkin, a group specializing in the study of halogen interactions. We are currently working on very interesting joint work, which I hope will soon be published. At the conference, I met other colleagues studying the structure of organic crystals — I hope these contacts will also be fruitful. We look forward to participating in the next conference, which will be held in Tomsk in two years."