What’s it like to take part in organizing a major international conference as a first-year student? How do you communicate with scientists from the world over and solve an avalanche of issues in mere hours? This July, ITMO University was home to the 4th International Conference on the Periodic Table, which brought together renowned chemists, physicists, educators, and historians of chemistry from Russia, the US, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Israel, China, and other countries. The event’s organizing committee was comprised, in part, of students of ITMO’s School of Biotechnology and Cryogenic Systems.