Monash hosts successful Electron Crystallography School (ECS2023) with delegates from 13 countries

From 19-21 August 2023, the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy (MCEM), one of Microscopy Australia’s Monash facilities, hosted the Electron Crystallography School 2023 as a satellite event to the 26^th International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) Congress and as a Microscopy Australia Masterclass.

The ECS2023 focused on two broad topics that have seen considerable development in the last decade or so: 4D-scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) and 3D/micro-electron diffraction (3D-ED). These developments have led to major advances in the characterisation of the atomic-scale structure of solid matter, from energy materials and green chemicals to glasses, proteins and pharmaceutical compounds.

The School was aimed at postgraduate students, early career researchers and new comers to the field. It offered a series of lectures on the fundamental theory underpinning 4D-STEM and 3D-ED, together with historical background, software demonstrations and hands-on tutorials. The intensive program also included a live demonstration on MCEM’s latest transmission electron microscope acquisition, the Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-j. A session was dedicated to presentations from industry scientists. There was also a lively poster session and a tour of MCEM facilities.

The School was very fortunate to have twenty distinguished scientists from both overseas and Australia as its speakers. Amongst them were Ute Kolb (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz) and Jian-Min Zuo (University of Illinois), past and present recipients of the Gjønnes Medal in Electron Crystallography, the highest distinction in the field.

Over 70 delegates from 13 countries and 4 continents attended the School, with students and researchers from countries as far away as Brazil, Belgium and China. This included a significant cohort from the X-ray crystallography community. Feedback from attendees was very positive, with appreciation shown not only for the quality of the program, but also for the opportunity to meet with the broad crystallography community.

The two co-chairs of the organising committee, Hongyi Xu (Stockholm University) and Laure Bourgeois (Monash University) are grateful for the generous support from the following sponsors: Microscopy Australia, the IUCr, the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand (SCANZ), Rigaku, JEOL, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Dectris, ReadCrystal, Gatan Ametek and NanoMEGAS.