Introduction

   This meeting continues a series of Discussion Meetings initiated by Prof. Gert Strobl. The first meeting took place in 1999 in Jostal, a small valley near Freiburg/Germany, followed by four well-known meetings (2001–2007) in Waldau, also in the Black Forest. From there, the series traveled around the world: Shanghai (2009), Beijing (2011), Kyoto (2013), Honolulu (2015), Halle-Wittenberg (2017), and San Sebastián (2019). In 2024, the meeting was held in Yamagata, Japan. This time, the meeting returns to its origin in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

   We aim not only to acknowledge the achievements of the previous generations of polymer crystallization researchers and present recent work by leading scientists, but also to offer young researchers a platform to present their work. We encourage them to share their results, either as posters or as invited or contributed talks. In doing so, we hope to help lay the foundation for future developments in the field.

   Professor Strobl’s central goal was to stimulate discussion of unresolved issues in polymer crystallization. Accordingly, ample time has always been allocated for debate. We will continue this tradition by allowing ample time for discussion after the talks and during the poster sessions.