The third K. K. Kuo Summer School of Electron Microscopy and Crystallography and International Workshop on 3D Molecular Imaging by Cryo-Electron Microscopy was held at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences from August 8 to 12, 2010.  Almost 200 scholars and students from eight different countries attended this workshop.

Twenty-one speakers from the most prestigious laboratoriesaround the world which are engaged in EM 3D reconstruction projects presented wonderful talks to the audience. Prof. David DeRosier, the first person to do 3D reconstruction by electron microscopy,delivered an opening lecture entitled, “A personal account of the development of 3D reconstruction”. He described the development of 3D reconstruction from optical diffraction methods to 3D reconstructions. The key idea of his invention is that electron micrographs are more than just two-dimensional images; they are projections of the structure taken along the direction of view. Now it is possible to build up a 3D Fourier transform of a structure by combining images taken in different directions of view. His report gave the audience a clear and more comprehensive understanding of the origin of 3D reconstruction and the theory behind it.

At the workshop banquet, the organizing committee awarded fellowships to nine young students. Six received fellowships of $ 400 and three received scholarships of $200. After awarding the fellowships, Prof. Wah Chiu from Baylor College of Medicine gave an excellent speech, saying “EM is anywhere, EM is everywhere.” This will no doubt become a much quoted saying in the EM community.

The workshop included a practical session lasting one and a half days. Sixty-five students were divided into three interest groups.

This workshop provided young scientists with an excellent opportunity to meet and interact with the key scientists working in the field of EM 3D reconstruction and will push forward the development of EM 3D reconstruction in China.

Meeting place	Ruiming Xu	Ken Taylor
Nigel Unwin	Wah Chiu	Bridget Carragher
David DeRoesier	Fei Sun	Daneng Wang (left)