The 2024 SPIE Advanced Lithography and Patterning Symposium is 6 conferences, 3 plenary talks, 1 special session, 2 panel sessions, 15 short courses, and 1 poster session, and it starts Monday in San Jose, California.  Abstract submittals were 215, about the same as last year, and registration is up about 15% from last year, to 2,200.  That is right at the historical average for the ten years prior to Covid.  It is good to be back!

I am beginning the week relaxed, for a change.  For more than 30 years I have spent the Sunday before the start of the conference teaching an eight-hour short course (and for some of those years, 12 hours).  I love to teach, but I am not as young and energetic as I used to be.  Standing and talking all day is exhausting, so finally I decided that is not how I wanted to start my week.  Instead, I took a class!  (Thank you, Ofer Adan, for a great course on metrology tool matching.)  So as Sunday comes to a close, I am relaxed and ready for any exciting week discovering what is new in lithography, patterning, metrology, and more.