LPS graduate students Jacob Banasek and Sophia Rocco attended a two-day International Workshop on Optical Thomson Scattering hosted by the University of Rochester at the Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE). Participants shared recent advancements in diagnostic development at their various institutions, the labs of which span a large range of interesting plasma conditions, from picosecond laser-produced plasmas to the nanosecond-scale pulsed-power plasmas at Cornell. Jacob and Sophia both presented talks on their work in developing the Thomson scattering diagnostic in use at Cornell (“Thomson scattering on Laboratory Plasma Jets to Study Current Polarity Effects” and “Thomson scattering as a tool for differentiating sources of spatial velocity distributions in gas-puff z-pinches,” respectively). The collective expertise in the room was incredible, and Cornell came away with some new perspectives and fresh ideas about how to approach both Thomson collection and analysis in improved ways.