Microscopy History
In what year was the Southeastern Microscopy Society originally founded originally under the name Southeastern Electron Microscopy Society?
What is 1964?
This company’s Phenom desktop SEMs are widely used for fast, high-quality imaging without the need for a full-size SEM lab.
What is Thermo Fisher Scientific?
This electron microscopy technique sends a beam straight through ultrathin specimens to achieve the highest possible resolution.
What is transmission electron microscopy? (or What is TEM?)
This university’s Electron Microscopy Facility is a major multi-user core that supports researchers across many disciplines and is home to the Southeastern Microscopy Society annual meeting.
What is the University of Georgia?
These two German brothers one a physicist, one a physician are widely considered the founding fathers of electron microscopy. The physicist built the first working TEM, and the physician first applied it to biological samples.
Who are the Ruska brothers? (or Who are Ernst and Helmut Ruska?)
In 1992 this word was dropped from the society’s original name to create the Southeastern Microscopy Society we know today.
What is “Electron”?
This company is well known for its S8000G Xe Plasma FIB -SEM, popular for both materials and life science research.
What is TESCAN?
This image feature around the beam in a TEM indicates that the illumination is unsaturated.
What is a halo?
This Florida multi user facility provides researchers access to advanced tools for nanoscale fabrication, characterization, and electron microscopy in a dedicated cleanroom and imaging labs.
What is the University of Florida's Nanoscale Research Facility? (or What is NRF?)
This longtime SEMS member has served as the official Historian and Archivist of the society since 2001 and authored the official Brief History of SEMS.
Who is Jay Jerome? (or Who is W. Gray "Jay" Jerome?)
This breakthrough in the early 2000s used advanced correctors to fix lens aberrations in electron microscopes, pushing resolution below one angstrom for the first time.
What is aberration correction? (or What are aberration corrected electron microscopes?)
This company is recognized in the TEM community for its NanoSprint series of high-resolution CMOS cameras used on many transmission electron microscopes.
What is AMT? (or What is Advanced Microscopy Techniques?)
To reduce normal compression artifacts in ultrathin sections, one can treat them with vapors from this organic solvent before picking them up on a grid.
What is chloroform? (or What are organic solvent vapors?)
This Alabama research center provides researchers access to advanced tools for micro and nanoscale fabrication and characterization in a dedicated cleanroom facility.
What is the University of Auburn's Alabama Micro/Nano Science and Technology Center? (or What is AMNSTC?)
This researcher from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine won the Ruska Award in 2025.
Who is Kenny Johnson?
This Englishman looked at thin slices of cork under his microscope and coined the term "cell" in his 1665 book Micrographia.
Who is Robert Hooke?
This company recently released the JSM-IT810, their latest high-performance Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope.
What is JEOL?
A glass knife for ultramicrotomy is sharpest in the area where this feature is closest to the edge.
What is the stress line?
This Carolina research center provides researchers access to advanced tools for nanoscale fabrication, characterization, and materials design in a state-of-the-art shared facility.
What is the University of South Carolina's SmartState Center for Experimental Nanoscale Physics? (or What is SENFIS?)
For decades, this longtime SEMS member presented the Ruska Award each year and delighted the audience with its history — until his death in 1997. The society’s teaching award is now named in his honor.
Who is Ivan Roth? (or Who is Dr. Ivan Roth?)
In 2020, this imaging technique achieved atomic resolution, revealing individual atoms inside protein molecules for the first time.
What is atomic-resolution cryo-EM?
This company’s latest SU8700 Cold Field Emission SEM features an industry-leading large specimen chamber and extremely high brightness gun.
What is Hitachi?
This is a good cutting speed for collecting high-quality ultrathin sections on an ultramicrotome.
What is one millimeter per second?
This University recently launched The Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science to expand its electron microscopy capabilities in both clinical and research applications.
What is the University of Miami's
This CDC electron microscopist captured the iconic transmission electron microscope images of SARS-CoV-2 from the first U.S. COVID-19 patient in early 2020.
Who is Cynthia S. Goldsmith? (or C.S. Goldsmith)