This event will be taking place between
Tuesday 1 March -  Wednesday 2 March 2022
13:00 - 20:20 GMT | 14:00 - 21:20 CET | 08:00 - 15:20 EST
Online

The 6th Microscopy Characterisation of Organic–Inorganic Interfaces (MCOII) meeting will again be hosted virtually, but it will keep the main goals and aspirations of all the previous editions.  We will use the advantages of the virtual format and this time not only connect experts from different branches of the microscopy community (the life sciences and materials science) but also bridge two continents in a joint discussion on the challenging but increasingly important topic of studying hybrid organic–inorganic materials.

The transatlantic scientific organiser team of Nadja V. Tarakina (MPIKG, Germany) and Lena F. Kourkoutis (Cornell University, USA) have put together an exciting two-day programme. As usual, the first day will be more general, covering a broad range of microscopy approaches (correlative microscopy solutions, in-situ gas and liquid microscopy methods, low-voltage electron microscopy and many more) in the context of imaging hybrid and soft matter.

On the second day, the special Focus Lecture Series will provide an in-depth view on "Advances in Analytical Cryo-Electron Microscopy: From sample preparation to data acquisition to data analysis”. Cryo-electron microscopy has transformed life sciences by enabling the structure of macromolecules to be imaged down to the atomic scale. Recent developments in instrumentation and techniques have opened new opportunities for scientific discovery not only in life sciences but also in physical sciences and in areas where the two fields intersect. This lecture series will bring together world-leading experts in analytical electron microscopy, highlighting the latest achievements, new opportunities and outstanding challenges in probing beam-sensitive and hybrid materials and their interfaces. 

 

Scientific Organisers

  • Nadja Tarakina.jpg

    Dr Nadezda Tarakina

    Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany 
    Nadezda V. Tarakina leads the Electron Microscopy research group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam (Germany). After completing her PhD in Chemistry at the Institute of Solid State Chemistry in Yekaterinburg (Russia), she performed research in Belgium, Germany, Russia, Sweden and the UK, combining different scattering techniques and transmission electron microscopy to study highly-disordered structures. She got her Habilitation in Experimental Physics from the University of Wuerzburg (Germany) in 2020. Her main research interest lies in developing approaches for characterising soft functional materials and their interfaces with hard matter at the nanoscale using electron microscopy techniques. She is the lead scientific organiser of the “Microscopy characterisation of organic-inorganic interfaces” conference, which has been running on an annual basis since 2016. 

  • Lena Kourkoutis.jpg

    Dr Lena F. Kourkoutis

    Cornell University, USA
    Lena F. Kourkoutis is Associate Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University and the co-Director of the Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM). Dr. Kourkoutis received her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Rostock, Germany in 2003, and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell in 2009. As a Humboldt Research Fellow, she spent 2011–2012 exploring cryo-electron microscopy at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. She returned to Cornell as a Postdoctoral Associate in 2012 and joined the Applied and Engineering Physics Faculty in 2013. The Kourkoutis electron microscopy group focuses on understanding and controlling nanostructured materials, from biomaterials to materials for energy to quantum materials. They have developed new cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy techniques to gain access to low temperature electronic states, to study processes at liquid/solid interfaces in energy devices and to image thick biological specimens. Prof. Kourkoutis has been awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), an NSF CAREER award, and is recipient of the Burton Metal awarded by the Microscopy Society of America and the Kurt Heinrich Award from the Microanalysis Society, among other honors. She is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences.