This issue showcases the winners of the second annual Microscopy Today Innovation Awards competition. These awards were established to honor innovative microscopy-related products and methods that appeared in the previous year.

The team of judges, led by Tom Kelly, looked for innovations that will make new scientific investigations possible. The ten winning innovations are selected on the basis of their importance and usefulness to the microscopy community. The entries most likely to win are those that provide better, faster, or entirely new methods of analysis by some type of microscope or microanalytical instrument.

The following innovations received 2011 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards:

• Anasys Instruments nanoIR™ provides AFM-based infrared spectroscopy

• Multimodal Optical Nanoprobe examines specimens with a laser in TEM

• Fischione Model 2540 in situ environmental heating TEM holder

• NanoMEGAS ASTAR crystal orientation and phase mapping system for TEM

• Nikon N-SIM structured illumination super-resolution microscope

• Electrochemical Strain Microscopy in scanning probe microscopy

• Resolution Optics Desktop Digital In-Line Holographic Microscope

• Semrock VersaChrome tunable thin-film bandpass filters

• STAR Cryoelectronics microcalorimeter x-ray spectrometer

• WITec True Surface Microscopy improves confocal Raman imaging

Descriptions of these innovations are provided in an article within this issue. Congratulations to the developers of these instruments and methods.

Details of the nomination process for the 2012 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards will be posted on the Microscopy Today website (www.microscopy-today.com) by January 1, 2012. Nomination applications will be accepted through March 1, 2012.