diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4a7272a22a..16ca702ca0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,11 +8,15 @@ we hit release version 1.0.0.
 ## [UNRELEASED] - YYYY-MM-DD
 
 ### Added
+- enabled center of mass for periodic systems (chooses *best* COM)
 - enabled returning the overlap matrix from `berry_phase`
 - added `rocksalt` @tfrederiksen
 - slab geometry creations, `fcc_slab`, `bcc_slab` and `rocksalt_slab` @tfrederiksen
 - added `Geometry.translate2uc` to shift everything into the unit-cell
 
+### Fixed
+- incorrect handling of `atoms` argument in `Geometry.center` calls
+
 ### Changed
 - State*.outer corrected to the same interface as State*.inner
 - all `sisl.geom` geometries are now calling `optimize_nsc` if needed
diff --git a/sisl/geometry.py b/sisl/geometry.py
index f479a5df32..d23c3412fb 100644
--- a/sisl/geometry.py
+++ b/sisl/geometry.py
@@ -2440,33 +2440,52 @@ def center(self, atoms=None, what='xyz'):
         By specifying `what` one can control whether it should be:
 
         * ``xyz|position``: Center of coordinates (default)
-        * ``mm(xyz)``: Center of minimum/maximum of coordinates
+        * ``mm:xyz`` or ``mm(xyz)``: Center of minimum/maximum of coordinates
         * ``mass``: Center of mass
+        * ``mass:pbc``: Center of mass using periodicity, if the point 0, 0, 0 is returned it
+            may likely be because of a completely periodic system with no true center of mass
         * ``cell``: Center of cell
 
         Parameters
         ----------
         atoms : array_like
             list of atomic indices to find center of
-        what : {'xyz', 'mm(xyz)', 'mass', 'cell'}
-            determine whether center should be of 'cell', mass-centered ('mass'),
-            center of minimum/maximum position of atoms or absolute center of the positions.
+        what : {'xyz', 'mm:xyz', 'mass', 'mass:pbc', 'cell'}
+            determine which center to calculate
         """
-        if 'cell' == what:
+        if "cell" == what:
             return self.sc.center()
+
         if atoms is None:
             g = self
         else:
             g = self.sub(atoms)
-        if 'mass' == what:
-            mass = self.mass
+
+        if "mass:pbc" == what:
+            mass = g.mass
+            sum_mass = mass.sum()
+            # the periodic center of mass is determined by transfering all
+            # coordinates onto a circle -> fxyz % 1 * 2pi
+            # Then we mass average the circle angles for each of the fractional
+            # coordinates, and transform back into the cartesian coordinate system
+            theta = (g.fxyz % 1) * 2 * np.pi
+            # construct angles
+            avg_cos = (mass @ np.cos(theta)) / sum_mass
+            avg_sin = (mass @ np.sin(theta)) / sum_mass
+            avg_theta = np.arctan2(-avg_sin, -avg_cos) / (2*np.pi) + 0.5
+            return avg_theta @ g.sc.cell
+
+        if "mass" == what:
+            mass = g.mass
             return dot(mass, g.xyz) / np.sum(mass)
-        if 'mm(xyz)' == what:
-            return (self.xyz.min(0) + self.xyz.max(0)) / 2
-        if not ('xyz' in what or 'position' in what):
-            raise ValueError(
-                'Unknown what, not one of [xyz,position,mass,cell]')
-        return np.mean(g.xyz, axis=0)
+
+        if what in ("mm:xyz", "mm(xyz)"):
+            return (g.xyz.min(0) + g.xyz.max(0)) / 2
+
+        if what in ("xyz", "position"):
+            return np.mean(g.xyz, axis=0)
+
+        raise ValueError(f"{self.__class__.__name__}.center could not understand option 'what' got {what}")
 
     def append(self, other, axis, offset='none'):
         """ Appends two structures along `axis`
diff --git a/sisl/physics/_feature.py b/sisl/physics/_feature.py
index 3c56c5f04b..9615b53fdb 100644
--- a/sisl/physics/_feature.py
+++ b/sisl/physics/_feature.py
@@ -44,5 +44,3 @@ def yield_manifolds(values, atol: float=0.1, axis: int=-1) -> Iterator[List]:
             manifold.append(i)
     if len(manifold) > 0:
         yield manifold
-
-    
diff --git a/sisl/tests/test_geometry.py b/sisl/tests/test_geometry.py
index d14d4b3c44..6ef67fa684 100644
--- a/sisl/tests/test_geometry.py
+++ b/sisl/tests/test_geometry.py
@@ -556,12 +556,12 @@ def test_swapaxes(self, setup):
         assert np.allclose(setup.g.cell[1, :], s.cell[0, :])
 
     def test_center(self, setup):
-        one = setup.g.center(atoms=[0])
-        assert np.allclose(setup.g[0], one)
-        al = setup.g.center()
-        assert np.allclose(np.mean(setup.g.xyz, axis=0), al)
-        al = setup.g.center(what='mass')
-        al = setup.g.center(what='mm(xyz)')
+        g = setup.g.copy()
+        assert np.allclose(g[1], g.center(atoms=[1]))
+        assert np.allclose(np.mean(g.xyz, axis=0), g.center())
+        # in this case the pbc COM is equivalent to the simple one
+        assert np.allclose(g.center(what='mass'), g.center(what='mass:pbc'))
+        assert np.allclose(g.center(what='mm:xyz'), g.center(what='mm(xyz)'))
 
     def test_center_raise(self, setup):
         with pytest.raises(ValueError):