Honoring the legacy of George Sheldrick: Insights from the Cambridge Structural Database

George M. Sheldrick (1942–2025) transformed the fields of crystallography and structural chemistry. He was a remarkable researcher and educator and developed the SHELX program suite, which will continue to teach and make accessible structural determination of chemical structures at an international level. From the perspective of the Cambridge Structural Database [Groom et al., “The Cambridge Structural Database,” Acta Crystallogr., Sect. B 72(2), 171–179 (2016)] (CSD), Sheldrick's impact can be seen through his direct contribution of more than 800 crystal structures encompassing a broad range of chemistry, as well as through the widespread adoption of SHELX for crystal structure solution and refinement. For several decades, SHELX has been one of the most widely used software suites used by crystallographers depositing structures in the CSD and has played a central role in the determination of a substantial proportion of the structures contained within the database. Beyond his scientific achievements, Sheldrick was a gifted teacher and mentor whose influence extended across generations of crystallographers worldwide. In this contribution, we reflect on George Sheldrick's career and legacy from the perspective of the CSD, highlighting both his personal contributions to the database and the enduring impact of the SHELX programs on crystallography.