On behalf of the membership of the Microanalysis Society (MAS), welcome to Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 and to Nashville. The Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M) meeting was established in 1996 as the joint annual meeting of the Microscopy Society of America (MSA) and MAS. Since 2002, M&M has also served as the annual meeting of the International Metallographic Society (IMS), and it is now the premier meeting in our field, spanning the full spectrum of activities in microanalysis and the varied disciplines of microscopy. I thank my counterparts in the joining societies, MSA President Nestor Zaluzec and IMS President Nat Saenz, for all the time and effort they have invested to make this meeting a success.