Crystallography remains a central pillar of structural biology, and as novel structures become increasingly rare and light sources' capabilities continue to grow, serial crystallography is also of growing importance. Open communication between developers and users in both hardware and software domains, and between these groups of developers, helps us choose the most impactful work to undertake and to approach it with adequate understanding of context, possibilities and limitations. Building on an energizing inaugural workshop in 2023, we are convening the second Serial Crystallography Methods Workshop from August 18th to 22nd, 2025.
After careful consideration, the decision was made to move this year's meeting from the previous location in Ithaca, NY, to Hamburg, Germany. We believe alternating locations is in alignment with our aim to include the broadest possible international community of scientists, and particularly given the current political context in the United States, we thought it important to hold the meeting outside the US. Part of the program will be hybrid and accessible to join from anywhere in the world.
The workshop format will mirror the format from 2023, with a strong emphasis on conversation and consensus-building. We are again planning two days dedicated to developers for sharing advancements and determining how to address challenges, to be followed by two days focused on user experiences, and finally a wrap-up day for developers to organize our efforts toward our collective goals over the next two years.
The finalized report produced as a result of the 2023 workshop will also be made publicly available before the workshop and will serve as a starting point for some of this year's discussions. We will generate a report at the close of this workshop as well.