The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is an independent administrative institution, established for the purpose of contributing to the advancement of science in all fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities by disbursing research grants, fostering the next generation of scientists, promoting international scientific collaboration, and advancing university reform.The 5^th Multidisciplinary Science Forum organized by the JSPS USA office took place at the University of Florida in Gainesville on November 7^-8, 2014. Volker Rose was one of the five invited US speakers. He presented a talk entitled “Elemental Fingerprinting of Materials with Sensitivity at the Atomic Limit” in which he discussed the recent advances in synchrotron x-ray scanning tunneling microscopy (SX-STM).