Banner image: Peptide Snowflakes by Christian Bortolini (National Physical Laboratory) – Winner, 2025 MMC AFM & SPM Image Competition.
We’re excited to welcome you to the AFM & SPM 2026 meeting hosted in Leeds. This meeting will take place during 3 full day, Tuesday 23, Wednesday 24, and Thursday 25 June 2026, with on optional practical workshop on Monday 22 June 2026.
AFM & SPM 2026 will bring together speakers and participants from around the world, with a focus on cross-method collaboration, international knowledge exchange and developing the next generation of SPM researchers. Whether your work is in materials science, biology, chemistry, instrumentation, or computation, AFM & SPM 2026 aims to foster dialogue across the full range of scanning probe techniques from AFM and STM to MFM, KPFM, SNOM/NSOM, and beyond.
Join us in Leeds an opportunity to connect with a vibrant, international community and explore the evolving landscape of scanning probe microscopy.
With special thanks to the EPSRC for their support of this event.
Scientific Organisers
George Heath
George is a University Academic Fellow at the University of Leeds, appointed across the School of Physics & Astronomy and the School of Biomedical Sciences. His current research group focuses on developing High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy methods to study the structural dynamics of single biomolecules. Before starting his group, he held a postdoctoral position in New York with Prof. Simon Scheuring at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University. George obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Leeds in 2015. In 2023, George was awarded an EPSRC Open Fellowship to continue developing AFM methods.
Lekshmi Kailas
Dr. Lekshmi Kailas completed her MSc in Physics from the University of Kerala (India) and did a PhD in Materials Physics from the Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) where she studied the surface and interface behaviour at the nanoscale in thin polymer films. She carried out her postdoctoral research at the University of Sheffield (UK) where she worked across various departments on polymer crystallisation studies, instrument development for video rate AFM as well as cryo-TEM studies of exosporium layers. She then worked briefly with the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India as a visiting scientist at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR, Kalpakkam). Following this, she joined the University of Limerick (Ireland) as a staff instrument scientist at the Bernal Institute in microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. In 2019, she joined the University of Leeds (UK) as an Experimental Officer in AFM at the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Kristina Rusimova
I am an experimental physicist working at the intersection between nanoscience and photonics. In particular, I am interested in studying how light and matter interact on the atomic scale. I received an MSci in Physics with Nanotechnology from the University of Birmingham in 2012, followed by a PhD in atomic manipulation with the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) from the University of Bath in 2016. Following a short postdoctoral position in photonics, I joined the Department of Physics at the University of Bath as an independent Prize Fellow in 2018 and as a tenured Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in 2021. In 2022 I was part of the team awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Faraday Division Horizon Prize for the discovery of chiroptical harmonic scattering. My work is now focused on looking for new understanding of the nanoscale physical processes that underpin light emission and single molecule reactions induced by the tip of an STM.
Samuel Jarvis
I am a Senior Lecturer in Physics, Director of the Lancaster IsoLab, and head of Lancaster XPS. I lead the Atomic Imaging and Surface Science group at Lancaster University, where my research is driven by the desire to explore fundamental phenomena using atomic scale imaging and molecular assembly, and to address major challenges in translating functional 2D and 3D molecular materials into real-world environments. My research spans funded projects addressing fundamental surface science, molecular electronics, thermoelectric green energy materials, single atom catalysts, green hydrogen generation, and atomically engineered 2D materials.
Facilities available in our group include ultra-high vacuum (UHV) molecular deposition, solution self-assembly, 2D material fabrication, atomic force microscopy (AFM), nanomechanical and conductive AFM, UHV scanning tunnelling microscopy (UHV-STM), non-contact atomic force microscopy (ncAFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray standing wave studies (XSW) at the national Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility.
