Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group Conference 2011 (EMAG 2011)

The biennial EMAG conference has established a strong reputation as a key event for the national and international electron microscopy community. In 2011 the meeting was held at The University of Birmingham, and I must first take this opportunity of thanking Birmingham for hosting the conference and for the excellent support we received from the local organisers. As a committee, we are delighted to see that enthusiasm for the EMAG conference series continues to be strong. We received more than 160 submitted abstracts, and 157 delegates attended the meeting. The scientific programme organiser, Ian MacLaren, put together an exciting programme. Plenary lectures were presented by Professor Knut Urban, Dr Frances Ross and Dr Richard Henderson. There were a further 10 invited speakers, from the UK, Continental Europe, Australia, the USA and Japan. The quality of the contributed oral and poster presentations was also very high. EMAG is keen to encourage student participation, and a winner and two runners-up were presented with prizes for the best oral and poster presentations from a student. I am always struck by the scientific quality of the oral and poster contributions and the vibrant discussions that occur both in the formal sessions and in the exhibition space at EMAG. I am convinced that a crucial part of maintaining that scientific quality is the opportunity that is offered of having a paper fully reviewed by two internationally selected referees and published in the Journal of Physics: Conference Series. For many students, this is the first fully reviewed paper they publish. I hope that you, like me, will be struck by the scientific quality of the 87 papers that follow, and that you will find them interesting and informative. Finally I must thank the platinum sponsors for their support of the meeting. These were Gatan, Zeiss, FEI, JEOL and Hitachi. I must also thank the European Microscopy Society for their generous sponsorship and support for the travel costs of two invited speakers from Continental Europe. Finally, keep an eye on www.emag-iop.org for details on EMAG 2013, which is to be held at the University of York. P D Nellist University of Oxford