Scientists and manufacturers from all over the world met in Kiel, Germany for 6 days, from August 28th to September 2nd, 2011, during the international Microscopy Conference 2011 and shared a week of lively exchange about the latest developments in Instrumentation and Methods and current topics in Materials Science and Life Science.

More than 930 participants, among those 140 student participants, attended the conference at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, one of the leading universities in Germany. The congress, chaired by Wolfgang Jäger (Kiel) was the 35th in the series of electron microscopy conferences organized by the German Society for Electron Microscopy (DGE) and, for the first time, in collaboration with the European Microscopy Society (EMS), the Nordic Microscopy Society (SCANDEM), the Polish Microscopy Society (PTMi), scientists from research institutions in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and St. Petersburg, Russia, with support by Conventus Congressmanagement & Marketing GmbH.

More than 500 scientific contributions were received from 44 countries within as well as from outside Europe, including Japan, China, Israel, South Africa, USA, and others. The scientific program, designed by an international panel of distinguished scientists, focused on electron microscopy and related methods and covered with more than 25 scientific symposia and workshops the current developments in Instrumentation and Methods, Materials Science (www.mc2011.de for details) and Life Sciences. Numerous excellent contributions by scientists from universities, research institutions, and industry demonstrated convincingly the importance of electron microscopy methods and related methods in topical materials research and life sciences, in applications dedicated to the development of new materials, and for the advanced analysis of materials in current areas of technology.

Several workshops focused on advanced methods and recent developments in Cryo SEM/FIB, in Programming for Data Acquisition, in the Local assessment of magnetic and electrical inner fields in the TEM, and in Image simulation for TEM and STEM.

The broad spectrum of topical areas was reflected in parts by the opening lecture and the invited plenary talks of internationally leading scientists with their excellent contributions: ‘Is there a need for further instrumental development?' (Maximilian Haider, Heidelberg, opening lecture), ‘Structure determination of dynamic macromolecular complexes by single particle cryo-electron microscopy' (Holger Stark, Göttingen, EMS lecture), ‘Understanding deformation mechanisms in nanoscale metals using in-situ electron microscopy' (Cynthia Volkert, Göttingen), ‘Imaging systems for systems imaging in biology' (Heinrich Hohenberg, Hamburg), ‘New techniques and instrumentation for the characterisation of magnetic and electrostatic fields in nanocrystals and working devices' (Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski, Copenhagen-Lyngby and Jülich), ‘Non-destructive 3D orientation maps of polycrystals on scales from 1nm and 1 mm using transmission electron microscopy and 3D X-ray diffraction' (Henning F. Poulsen, Risoe), ‘The physics and chemistry of nano-carbons explored by high-resolution electron microscopy' (Jannik C. Meyer, Vienna, EMS lecture).

Following the opening ceremony with numerous guests of honours and conference participants, the 2011 laureates of the Ernst Ruska Prize, Johan Verbeeck (Physicist from Antwerp) and David Mastronarde (Cell Biologist from Boulder, Colarado USA) were awarded this prestigious prize, named after the Nobel Prize Laureate Ernst Ruska, for outstanding contributions in electron microscopy of materials science and life sciences. The lectures of the awardees, titled ‘Electrons with a twist: topological charge effects in a TEM‘ and ‘Software tools for tomographic reconstruction of large volumes‘, gave excellent insight into the methods and their importance in research for materials and life.

A number of further events and highlights contributed substantially to the success of this conference. The commercial exhibition, bringing together 50 manufacturers of microscopes and suppliers of equipment and products in all fields of microscopy and related techniques, a technical session, and many lunchtime sessions provided ample opportunity for exchange of information. In a special session about ‘Funding Strategies in Germany', Dr. Burkhard Jahnen (DFG German Science Foundation) and Dr. Franz Dettenwanger (Volkswagen Foundation) gave valuable insights into current research funding opportunities. The Conference Dinner Event featured the awarding of several MC2011 prizes and the greetings of the presidents and representatives of the microscopy societies (Annette Gunnaes, Oslo: SCANDEM; Aleksandra Czyrska-Filemonowicz, Cracow: PTMi; Dominique Schryvers, Antwerp: EMS; C. Barry Carter, Storrs, USA: International Federation of Societies for Microscopy IFSM; and Debbie Stokes, Cambridge: Chair of the emc2012 Manchester). Several MC2011 Best Poster Prizes were awarded to young graduate scientists for their outstanding research presentations, three ‘MC2011 Outstanding Micrograph' prizes were selected from the MC 2011 Best Image Contest ‘Art in Science', and an EMS Outstanding Paper Award 2011 was presented to Johan Verbeeck (Antwerp).