4th Frontiers in Electron and Scanning Probe Microscopy for the Physical and Life Sciences

Event details

Date

October 19 - 21, 2026

Location

Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Format

In-Person Event

EARLY-BIRD RATES AVAILABLE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Secure discounted rates before the deadline.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED

SUBMIT BY August 21, 2026

SUBMIT ABSTRACT

Share your latest research—limited slots available.

Advances in electron microscopy instrumentation and methods continue to drive progress in the physical and life sciences. The 4th edition of this conference will bring together researchers from physical and life sciences working at the frontiers of electron microscopy, tomography, artificial intelligence, and scanning probe microscopy.

Enjoy engaging presentations from select international scientists and explore scientific questions outside of your comfort zone.
Emphasis on identifying and addressing new challenges, promoting synergies and developing the next generation of instruments and tools.
Interactive panel discussions on scientific publishing with Nature Portfolio editors and on diverse career paths with field leaders.
Ample opportunities for engaging with leading scientists, peers, and editors through poster sessions, flash talks, and networking events.

Meet and Interact with our Editors

Connect with our editors throughout the conference, including dedicated time during the Meet the Editors session on Day 1. Ask questions, engage in meaningful conversations, and gain insight into the publishing process.

Available exclusively to registered conference attendees - register here.

Learn about and view the 3rd iteration of this conference through our 2024 Event Report on Nature.com:

EVENT REPORT

Keynote Speakers

Qian Chen

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Yifan Cheng

University of California San Francisco and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA

Dr. Yifan Cheng is currently an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He received his Ph.D. degree in 1991 from Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). From 1991 to 1996, he continued his research in solid state physics and electron microscopy as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Oslo (NTNF Fellow) and Max-Planck-Institute of Metal Research (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow). In 1996, he changed his research direction to structural biology, and received further training in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) from Professors Kenneth Taylor at Florida State University and Yoshinori Fujiyoshi at Kyoto University. In 1999, he joined the laboratory of Thomas Walz to setup a cryo-EM operation at Harvard Medical School. He started his independent career in 2006, joining the faculty of UCSF and has stayed there ever since. He has been an HHMI Investigator since 2015. He is the recipient of the Christian B. Anfinsen Award from The Protein Society (2018) and Anatrase Membrane Protein Award from Biophysical Society (2026), elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Science (2019) and National Academy of Sciences (2020).

His laboratory uses cryo-EM to study structures of biological macromolecules, particularly integral membrane proteins and dynamic complexes. In addition, development of cryo-EM methodology for structural biology is also a long-lasting interest of his laboratory. Previous works of his laboratory include developments of algorithms to correct electron beam-induced image motion and determination of the first atomic structure of TRPV1 by single particle cryo-EM, etc.

Amir Yacoby

Harvard University, USA

Amir Yacoby is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. He received his bachelor’s degree in the field of Aerospace engineering and then transitioned into Physics. Following a Master’s degree in theoretical Physics, Yacoby received his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics in 1994 from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Professor Yacoby is a member of the National Academy of Science, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Physical Society, member of the American Academy for Advancement of Science and an external member of the Max Plank Society.

Professor Yacoby works to develop new experimental techniques to explore quantum matter and uses these techniques to obtain new insights into their underlying quantum mechanical properties.

Speakers

Karen Bustillo

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

Karen Bustillo is a staff member at the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM), Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. At NCEM, Karen collaborates with scientists worldwide through the U. S. Department of Energy Molecular Foundry User Program to characterize materials with transmission electron microscopy. Dr. Bustillo’s research interests include developing advanced TEM techniques for imaging electron beam-sensitive materials such as polymers, organic small molecules, framework materials, and battery materials. She also has expertise in situ experiments including cryo, heating, mechanical testing, liquid cell, and gas cell. She pursues characterization of nanostructures using the spectroscopy capabilities of the TEM especially with respect to elemental quantification and data analysis.

Shelly Conroy

Imperial College London, England

Dr. Shelly Conroy is Associate Professor in Functional Thin Films and Microscopy, Royal Society Tata University Research Fellow, and Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant DISCO. Her research focuses on the atomic scale design and characterisation of functional materials for semiconductor, quantum, and energy applications.

Funded by the Royal Society and Tata, the Conroy Group develops multiferroic thin films with atomic scale precision and advances in situ and correlative electron microscopy, spectroscopy, and atom probe tomography to study dynamic interfaces and defects in functional materials. By combining controlled materials synthesis with advanced characterisation, the group investigates how materials interfaces and internal structures evolve under applied stimuli including electrical bias, temperature, and mechanical strain.

One part of the group focuses on probing the liquid–solid interface in energy (battery) materials using liquid cell electrochemistry TEM, hard X ray beamline measurements, and correlative cryogenic TEM and atom probe tomography to understand electrochemical processes at the atomic scale. The other half of the group, funded by the ERC Consolidator Grant DISCO, investigates and manipulates the dynamically evolving electric and magnetic phases that emerge at ferroic domain walls. Using helium cooled cryogenic TEM, the group also probes low temperature electronic and magnetic phases at the atomic scale.

Dr. Conroy is Co Director of the CDT in Materials 4.0 and Royce Imperial Academic Champion for Thin Film Growth. She holds a joint appointment at Tyndall National Institute as a Principal Researcher and is a Mercator Fellow at Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg. She also serves as Leader of the Focused Interest Groups of the Microscopy Society of America.

Before joining Imperial, Dr. Conroy held a Science Foundation Ireland Industry Research PI grant with Analog Devices Inc.: 'Dynamic Atomic Interface Characterisation for Improved Performance of Electrical and Magnetic Devices'. This work investigated magnetoresistance devices based on dynamic magnetic domain walls using MOKE and differential phase contrast STEM under applied bias and heating. She also studied in situ electrical breakdown and atomic scale phase changes in high voltage isolation polymer products and conducting PEDOT polymers using in situ TEM.

Dr. Conroy previously worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a permanent staff scientist before joining the University of Limerick as a Science Foundation Ireland Analog Devices Research Fellow and principal investigator. She holds a PhD in AlN thin film growth for optoelectronic device applications and in situ TEM from Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork, Ireland. Her PhD was funded by a Science Foundation Ireland PhD scholarship and seed funded by Intel Ireland.

Peter Crozier

Arizona State University, USA

Adrian Ferré-D’Amaré

National Institutes of Health, USA

Franz Giessibl

University of Regensburg, Germany

Drew Higgins

McMaster University, Canada

Drew is an Associate Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University, where their research focuses on sustainable electrochemical energy technology development. Particularly, their team focuses on applications including electrochemical CO2 conversion, rechargeable zinc-ion batteries, supercapacitors, water electrolyzers and biomass valorization processes. Their research covers the synthesis of new nanostructured electrode materials and their integration into electrochemical technologies, as well as developing advanced understanding of material performance through the development and implementation of in situ characterization techniques. Previously Drew completed their PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 2015, with their thesis involving the synthesis, characterization, and device integration of nanostructured oxygen reduction catalysts for low temperature fuel cells. During this time, they spent approximately one year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory working. In 2015, Drew started a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Chemical Engineering and in 2017 was promoted to an Associate Staff Scientist at Stanford University / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where they oversaw research activities focusing on discovering and understanding new electrocatalyst compositions and structures for a variety of important electrochemical reactions, including water oxidation, CO2 reduction, oxygen reduction and methane activation. More details are available at: https://www.higginslab.com/.

John Jimah

Princeton University, USA

John Jimah is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms of membrane remodeling in human cells and eukaryotic parasites, using cryo-electron microscopy and tomography (cryo-EM and cryo-ET) alongside biochemical and cell biological approaches.

He has contributed to our understanding of the structural mechanisms by which membrane architecture is maintained or remodeled, including how human dynamin assembles to drive membrane fission during endocytosis, how dynamin organizes actin during cell-cell fusion, and how the bacterial β-barrel assembly machinery mediates outer membrane protein folding. He also studied the malaria parasite protein CelTOS, a multistage vaccine target, and how it disrupts host membranes to enable parasite traversal through host cells. Dr. Jimah earned his B.A. in Molecular Biology from Colgate University and his Ph.D. in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, and he completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health. His work has been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and the NIGMS MOSAIC K99/R00 award. Overall, his research seeks to define structural principles of membrane remodeling across diverse cellular contexts.

Aaron Kuan

Yale University, USA

Aaron Kuan investigates how circuit connectivity within and between brain areas supports a diverse array of functions. His lab aims to apply circuit-mapping techniques at brain-wide scales to understand how brain wiring underlies cognition and neurological diseases. Kuan develops new electron microscopy and X-ray imaging techniques to enable 3D imaging of neuronal circuits with unprecedented resolution and scale and combines these approaches with behavior and functional imaging to reveal how circuit connectivity underlies brain activity and, ultimately, cognition. The long-term research goal is to extend high-resolution circuit mapping techniques to brain-wide scales to unite "top-down" and "bottom-up" views of brain anatomy and function.

Ju Li

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Ju Li is Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering at MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, as well as a core faculty member of MIT Schwarzman College of Computing (CCSE). Previously he has held faculty positions at the Ohio State University, and the University of Pennsylvania. His group (http://Li.mit.edu) investigates the mechanical, electrochemical and transport behaviors of materials as well as novel means of energy storage and conversion.

Ju was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014, a Fellow of the Materials Research Society in 2017 and a Fellow of AAAS in 2020. Li is the chief organizer of MIT A+B Applied Energy Symposia that aim to develop solutions to global climate change challenges with “A-Action before 2040” and “B-Beyond 2040” technologies. ( https://www.youtube.com/@mitab3889/videos).

Yuzhang Li

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Yuzhang Li is an Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. He received his bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. The long-term goal of the Li group@UCLA is to invent new tools and materials that address important challenges in sustainability and health. For example, we are leading efforts to leverage the powerful cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) tool to address grand challenges in sustainability. These efforts have led to significant breakthroughs in our understanding of batteries (Science 358, 506, 2017; Science 375, 66, 2022) and electrocatalysts (Nature Energy 8, 138, 2023), which represent important clean energy technologies necessary for securing energy resilience and security. New insights then inform parallel efforts in materials innovations (Nature 620, 86, 2023; Nature Energy 10, 502, 2025) that will enable transformative technologies. Yuzhang’s research has been highlighted by news media including Forbes, Popular Mechanics, and ABC7 Bay Area, while also being recognized with several awards, including the Packard Fellowship, Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Forbes 30 Under 30, and young investigator awards from the NSF, DOE, NIH, DOD, ACS, and ECS.

Kathryn Ann Moler

Stanford University, USA

Kathryn A. “Kam” Moler is the Marvin Chodorow Professor at Stanford University, where she previously served as Vice Provost and Dean of Research from 2018 to 2023 and currently serves as Vice President for SLAC. A physicist with both a B.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford, her work has been recognized by her election to the National Academy of Sciences and as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her other notable honors include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the William L. McMillan Award for outstanding contributions in condensed matter physics.

Reza Paraan

Biohub, USA

I am a team leader at biohub (formerly known as CZ Imaging Institute). My research focuses on benchmarking the cryoET pipeline from data collection to sub-tomogram averaging (STA) of protein complexes. For this, we develop novel benchmark samples such as the phantom (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02800-5) that was used for benchmarking particle picking (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686153v1), and other samples such as E.coli overexpressing virus-like particles (https://cryoetdataportal.czscience.com/datasets/10455) to study the effects of tomogram quality on STA. We collaborate with cryoET tool developers and machine learning developers to push the limits of sub-tomogram averaging and in situ structural biology.

Huaizong Shen

Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART), China

Dr. Huaizong Shen leads the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Biological Structure at the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (SMART). His research integrates structural biology with artificial intelligence to decipher the structure and function of pharmaceutically important ion channels and membrane receptors. By developing novel AI-driven methods, his team aims to democratize cryo-EM technology and accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and drug precursors. Dr. Shen has authored landmark studies in top-tier journals and is a recipient of China's Excellent Young Scientist Fund and national high-level talent awards.

Ellen Zhong