Targeted drug design, auto components and computer memory keep getting better thanks to atomic-scale studies of their molecular structure that enable industry to improve effectiveness, high-performance materials, and storage density. Our daily world is awash with examples of the benefits of X-ray crystallography. Open-access to X-ray lightsources has created a hub of innovation, bringing together industry, government, and academia from dozens of countries in the developed and developing world to focus on global challenges. Crystallography has made inroads toward the control of diseases such as HIV, influenza, and West Nile virus as well as advances toward global sustainability through energy efficient products and farming productivity. Ongoing innovations in microbeams, sample environments and preparation, and serial femtosecond crystallography continue to expand the detail scientists can get about the structure and thus properties and functions of molecules of all sizes. Crystallography has become a truly interdisciplinary field with ties to 28 Nobel Prizes and research in physics, biology, chemistry, mineralogy, geoscience and even cultural heritage. As the world celebrates the U.N. designated International Year of Crystallography, this session will look at advances in the field made possible by X-ray lightsources as well as new research tackling some of the biggest challenges in materials science, energy, sustainability, and global health.