Direct Methods (Crystallography)

Discovered by: Herbert A. Hauptman and Jerome Karle, awarded the 1985 Nobel prize in Chemistry.

What is it? A family of methods for estimating the phases of the Fourier transform of the scattering density from the corresponding magnitudes.

Why is it important? Direct methods are the preferred method for phasing crystals of small molecules having up to 1000 atoms in the asymmetric unit.