The PVA Conference on Phage/Virus Assembly is a continuation of a series that was initiated in 1968. At first it was a meeting of scientists working on mechanisms of bacteriophage assembly, it expanded to include animal and plant viruses. The conference alternates with the FASEB Virus Assembly meeting. At present the Conference is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together virologists, geneticists, biochemists, biophysicists and structural biologists working on various aspects of virus assembly and virus infection, including medically relevant viruses and archaeal viruses. The value of training and support the new generation of researchers in virus assembly is a priority of the Conference.