The curtain has now fallen on the 26^th edition of the European Conference on Surface Science and I think it can be said that Ecoss 26 has been a great success.
Thus, I would like to thank all the people who contributed to it: the 4 plenary and 54 invited speakers, the organizers, the Institutions who gave their patronage, the 19 exhibitors the 5 sponsors, and, naturally, the partecipants.

The conference was attended by 661 participants coming from 36 countries (455 established scientists and 204 students; 495 male and 166 female). They contributed to a rich and wide programme composed of 58 invited talks, 342 oral presentation and 211 poster contributions, divided into 17 topics and 6 dedicated symposia.

This conference was dedicated to Prof. Andrea Levi in the occasion of his 70-th birthday, and has commemorated two great scientists: Victoria Buch and Giovanni Boato.

I am very glad to say that we had a hard competition for the Ecoss prize and for the Best Poster prize, which were awarded to Christian Schwalb (Switzerland) and to Mao Ye (Japan), respectively.

Finally, a particular thank must go to dr. Mariachiara Lupi who was in charge of the scientific secretariat.

The next appointment will be in Groningen in the Netherlands (www.ecoss27.eu). I wish the next organizers a great success and hope to meet you all there for learning about the new and exciting developments of our research field.