From 9–12 of September 2018 silicon chemists from all over the world met at the Saarland University (Saarbrücken/Germany) in occasion of the 9th European Silicon Days. These were held in honor of Prof. Robert C. West (University of Wisconsin-Madison) as well as in combination with the ceremony of the 2018 WACKER Silicone Award (award winner: Prof. Herbert W. Roesky/University of Göttingen). Besides the scientific talks, the participating doctoral candidates presented their new results in poster sessions to share and discuss them with other scientists. Hereby, Lorenz J. Schiegerl (Technical University of Munich) was awarded with a poster prize by the advisory board for his poster „[Si₉(SnCy₃)₂]²⁻ – the First Deltahedral Nine-atomic Silicon Cluster with a Covalent Exo-bond“.