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(To be published in November 2026)

 

PDF edition: ISBN 978-3-86225-611-2 (39.80 €)

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• Prologue, table of contents, index, cover, and backcover (free download, 0.00 €)
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Single chapters

(To be published in November 2026)

 

• Chapter 1: Early Days: From Bombay to the U. S. (pdf, 24 pp., € 16.00)
  
  From childhood in Madras and Bombay to doctoral work in Illinois and Eastman Kodak, Desiraju traces the experiences that shaped his experimental rigor, independence, and emerging interest in crystal engineering.
• Chapter 2: From the U.S. to Hyderabad via Bangalore (pdf, 22 pp., € 16.00)
  
  Returning to India, Desiraju turns severe infrastructural limits in Hyderabad into a research strategy built on international collaboration, the CSD, and comparative analysis of intermolecular interactions.
• Chapter 3: Crystal Engineering: The Design of Organic Solids (pdf, 20 pp., € 16.00)
  
  Desiraju recounts how his 1989 book redefined crystal engineering around directional intermolecular interactions, hydrogen bonding, and data-driven analysis of recurring structural patterns.
• Chapter 4: Supramolecular Synthons and a New Organic Synthesis (pdf, 24 pp., € 16.00)
  
  The chapter develops the supramolecular synthon by transferring retrosynthetic logic from molecular synthesis to crystals, providing a practical, probabilistic framework for designing molecular solids.
• Chapter 5: The Weak Hydrogen Bond: What Is “Weak”? (pdf, 28 pp., € 18.00)
  
  Desiraju traces the emergence and defense of weak hydrogen bonds, especially C–H···O, C–H···N, and C–H···F–C interactions, and the debates that established their structural significance.
• Chapter 6: Interactions, Synthons, and Structural Design: Strategies of War (pdf, 16 pp., € 16.00)
  
  A holistic view of crystals as complex systems links structure landscapes, competing interactions, synthons, polymorphism, and multicomponent crystals, while challenging simple structure–property relations.
• Chapter 7: Going Native into the Indian Scientific System (pdf, 32 pp., € 26.00)
  
  Desiraju connects Indian science administration with polymorphism, crystal structure prediction, pharmaceutical solid forms, and AI, showing how crystal engineering matured scientifically and institutionally.
• Chapter 8: Return to the Indian Institute of Science (pdf, 20 pp., € 20.00)
  
  At IISc, Desiraju shifts crystal engineering from structural design toward properties, exploring mechanically responsive crystals, higher cocrystals, pharmaceutical applications, and new noncovalent bonds.
• Chapter 9: The International Union of Crystallography (pdf, 22 pp., € 20.00)
  
  Desiraju combines reflections on what defines a crystal with his IUCr presidency, the International Year of Crystallography, and science diplomacy, culminating in the 2017 Hyderabad Congress.
• Chapter 10: A Continuing Thought Stream Beyond Crystal Engineering (pdf, 36 pp., € 22.00)
  
  Looking beyond crystal engineering, Desiraju links future research challenges with emergence, holism, scientific responsibility, India’s research system, and Indian Knowledge Systems.
• Chapter 11: Epilogue (pdf, 8 pp., € 16.00)
  
  The epilogue reflects on a five-decade scientific career shaped by chance, nonconformity, and personal relationships, presenting science as a universal search for knowledge and chemistry as a path to holistic understanding.
• Appendix (pdf, 116 pp., € 32.00)
  
  Vita, chemistree, touchstones, holographs, publications, table of contents, links, image sources, index.