Lu and Kramer attended the “International Symposium of the CRC 1109: Metal Oxide – Water Systems” in Erkner from February 19 – 22. Kramer gave an invited talk about our continuing effort to understand the molecular level structure (and hydrophobicity) of the α-Al2O3(0001)/liquid water interface and Lu a poster explaining in detail the challenges in collecting optical surface phonon spectra (of the α-Al2O3(1120) surface) in UHV and how she has managed to overcome them.