Dear colleagues and nanoenthusiasts, For our network, the first months of 2026 have been dominated by good news and a series of exciting events. Five new Na- no-Argovia projects have made a good start and are briefly presented in this edi- tion of SNI INSight. At the last NanoTec Apéro, which was held in May at the FHNW School of Engineering and Envi- ronment, we had the chance to learn more about these new projects in collab- oration with industrial companies from the region. Three doctoral students from the SNI PhD School have successfully defended their dissertations over the last six months, and we’ve chosen Raphael Pauli as winner of the prize for the best mas- ter’s thesis of last year. In this edition, we briefly report on the topics explored by these early career researchers. In recent weeks, there have also been moments where it was necessary to pause, reflect and bid farewell. Our long-standing honorary member Andreas Engel passed away in April – and in this edition, we once again pay tribute to his dedication to the SNI and the nanoscience degree program. The trinational project WiVitis, which addressed the topic of sustainable viticul- ture in the face of climate change, also came to a successful conclusion in the past few months. The SNI’s Nano Imaging Lab primarily contributed to this project with informative electron microscope im- ages of the grapes – and hosted the well-attended closing symposium. Many other areas of research also ben- efit from the valuable information found in electron microscope images of differ- ent surfaces. With a view to not only ex- ploring the fascinating world of tiny structures but also making it accessible to a wide audience, the SNI outreach and communication team has for several years maintained a successful collabora- tion with the Museum Burghalde in Lenz- burg. In May, five “NanoCubes” were in- augurated at the museum following two years of preparatory work. Integrated into the permanent exhibition, these cubes provide insights into the world of microscopically small structures – offer- ing a new perspective on objects from the permanent exhibition. We’re very grate- ful to Markus Dürrenberger, the former head of the Nano Imaging Lab, who showed great attention to detail in han- dling the technical implementation of the concepts from the SNI outreach team. At the SNI, a small but excellent team is tasked with implementing and driving forward projects of this kind, as well as organizing SNI events and running the SNI PhD School, the study program and the institute as a whole. These people of- ten work in the background – but in this and the next edition of SNI INSight, we want to put them in the spotlight. With this in mind, we briefly introduce the members of the management team, who keep the SNI running smoothly and effi- ciently through their administrative work. I hope you all enjoy reading this edition and have a great summer. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Annual Event in September. Prof. Martino Poggio, SNI director 3 SNI INSight June 2026