The fourth Gordon Research Conference on "Plant Lipids: Structure, Metabolism, and Function" promises to be an exciting event that will provide a stimulating and international platform for understanding the latest research on plant lipids. For the second time, the conference will be preceded by a Gordon Research Seminar on Plant Lipids, where graduate students and postdoctoral researchers can share research, develop research and social networks in a supportive environment, and discuss career choices with meeting mentors. We encourage young scientists to participate in the Gordon Research Seminar, and we encourage broad participation in the Gordon Research Conference. The meeting theme "Integration of Lipid Metabolism, Signaling and Engineering" is designed to promote cross-disciplinary interactions with scientists from other fields of plant biology, introduce new technological approaches, foster participation of next generation lipid researchers, and encourage interaction with industry scientists. Presenters will discuss the latest advances in emerging paradigms, new developments in lipidomics and modeling, membrane lipids, the role of lipids in development and in stress, lipid mediators and signaling, nutritional lipids, bioenergy and industrial lipids. A special session to recognize the achievements of Dr. Ernst Heinz, a pioneer in plant lipid research, will highlight the past, present and future of plant lipids.