Of course, the heading is an error—an intentional misprint. Now that I have your attention, I want to tell you about a special event next summer. The Microanalysis Society (MAS) will host the sixth congress of the International Union of Microbeam Analysis Societies (IUMAS) to be held in conjunction with the M&M 2014 meeting, August 2–7, 2014, in Hartford, Connecticut. This organization, usually just called IUMAS, is the federation of microbeam analysis societies from around the world: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, Korea, Japan, and the USA. The IUMAS congress is held approximately every four years, and the last time it was on US soil was in 2000, in Kona, Hawaii.

This is an appropriate and auspicious year for the IUMAS congress since the first identification of elements via the technique of X-ray spectrometry was published in 1913–1914 by Henry G. J. Moseley. We often trace the birth of X-ray microanalysis to Moseley and his experiments in which he showed that each chemical element, sufficiently excited, will emit an X-ray spectrum with emission energies related in a regular manner to that element’s position in the periodic table. Oh yes, with the same set of experiments Moseley established the concept of atomic numbers, which eliminated the anomalies occurring in the periodic table when elements were ordered on the basis of atomic weights. While true micro-analysis, the excitation of characteristic X-ray spectra using finely focused electron beams, had to wait another 35 years for Raimond Castaing’s electron microprobe, there is general consensus that Moseley is indeed the “father” of X-ray microanalysis.

Plan on arriving a day early as IUMAS-6 will commence on Saturday, August 2, with half-day workshops on a number of topics from atom probe tomography (APT) to advanced electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). On Sunday, August 3, the program continues with a plenary keynote address by Prof. Laurie Leshin, Dean of the School of Science at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, titled “My Lab is on Mars: Geochemical Adventures with the Mars Curiosity Rover.” This session will be followed by many presentations describing the state of the art in microanalysis instrumentation and recent applications. For further information consult the website: www.iumas6.org.

The Microscopy & Microanalysis 2014 meeting itself will be larger than usual. This year the joining societies include the Microscopy Society of America, the Microanalysis Society, the International Metallographic Society, and the Microscopical Society of Canada (MSC/SMC), as well as IUMAS. The M&M meeting typically brings together over 2,000 microscopists and microanalyists for over 1,000 invited and contributed presentations. As usual this meeting will be combined with the largest annual microscopy-related instrument exhibition in the world. To learn more about M&M 2014, read David Bell’s preview article in this issue. See you in Hartford!