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Measure your own samples at the University of Cambridge’s national facility, gain expertise in small teaching groups and enjoy an immersive week of talks and workshops at the 2026 Nanoscience@Surfaces Summer School, being held at the Cavendish Laboratory.

Ideally suited to PhD students and early career researchers, the programme offers a comprehensive introduction to techniques and applications in surface science, with a particular emphasis on understanding surfaces at the nanoscale. Participants will explore a broad suite of experimental and theoretical methods, including scanning probe techniques, electron and optical spectroscopy, diffraction-based approaches to surface structure, and computational modelling of surfaces and adsorption processes. Equal emphasis will be placed on talks and hands‑on workshops, giving participants the valuable opportunity to put their newly acquired knowledge into immediate practice. The programme will also feature a poster session with a prize, as well as a conference dinner at Gonville and Caius College.

The programme will highlight how the techniques are applied across a range of research areas such as strongly correlated materials, surface and thin‑film magnetism, bio‑interfaces, atmospheric and astrochemical processes, battery science, electrochemistry, and catalysis. There will be a discussion of emerging trends, as well as links to industry, with a session on careers in academia and beyond.

Any students wishing to bring with them their own samples for measurement should email jck40@cam.ac.uk after registering; provide a brief description of the sample and a risk assessment. In the interests of fairness, a maximum of two samples per person can be submitted.