As always, the topics covered were diverse and attempted to cover the current developments in the field. The spectrum ranged from digitization and image processing to cross-scale tomographic methods, additive manufacturing, electromobility and hydrogen economy. Failure analysis again found its rightful place in the program this year with its own session. Also at this meeting, it was a special concern of the program advisory board to give sufficient space to classical metallographic methods, which found expression, among other things, in two plenary lectures specially invited on this topic.

A highlight of the meeting was the first joint session with the American sister organization of our technical committee, the International Metallographic Society (IMS). Top-class lectures and a plenary lecture offered a challenging program. Next year in Saarbrücken, Germany, this format is expected to be an integral part of the 56th Metallographic Meeting from Sept. 21-23, 2022, as well.

Award ceremonies were, as always, an integral part of the meeting. The 2021 Metallography Award of the Materialography Technical Committee, the Buehler Best Paper Award of the journal Praktische Metallographie for the journal year 2020, the Struers Best Poster Award and a Struers Best Contribution Award for the best oral presentation were awarded. Winners of the photo competition were also recognized in three different categories. These awards will be reported in detail elsewhere.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who actively participated and listened to the proceedings for their participation, contribution to the discussions and exchange of experiences, all of which contributed to the success of the 55th Metallography Meeting. The 55th Metallography Meeting has served the scientific-technical and also the very practical exchange of experience of our professional community, the materialography community.

Andreas Neidel
Conference Chairman and Head of the DGM Expert Committee Materialography