This highly interdisciplinary conference is known for rigorous and wide-ranging consideration of the roles of elements traditionally called “inorganic” in living systems at scales from the molecular to the global. EBIC brings together those studying the biotic-inorganic interface across the Periodic Table, mingling chemists, ecologists, geneticists, oceanographers, and computational biologists, among others. Topics range from transport, enzymology, and homeostasis in individual cells and organisms to the environmental processes they experience and influence, as well as the latest techniques enabling observation of these phenomena. This conference is distinct from other metallobiology meetings in having a substantial environmental theme and a broader view of the Periodic Table, regularly including radionuclides, metalloids, the halides, silicon, and non-metal essential nutrients. When possible we mix speakers working at the nanometer-nanosecond scale in the same session with those working at the kilometer-megayear scale, a practice demanding high quality introductory material from each speaker and discussion leader. EBIC provides a forum for leading scientists (many of whom will never have met before) with expertise in the inorganic dimensions of life to identify fundamental cross-cutting themes and unrecognized anomalies and share the latest on acquiring, analyzing, and applying bioinorganic chemical concepts to real world issues from public health to climate change.