Celebrating the Past Achievements and Future Possibilities of Electron Microscopy

To mark the 50^th Anniversary of the Electron Microscopy section of the Royal Microscopical Society, a celebratory event was hosted at one of the birthplaces of Electron Microscopy in the UK; Rothamsted Research in Harpenden.

Talks throughout the day demonstrated how important electron microscopy has become over the past 50 years, for example, chips inside mobile phones have become so small that they can only be analysed and characterised by electron microscopy. The use of Focused Ion Beam  (FIB) instruments, in particular, have become key tools for such analysis. Another example was how fluorescence microscopy can be correlated with electron tomography to identify and image rare or transient cellular ultrastructure, making it possible to temporarily resolve specific ultrastructural rearrangements in the cell.

To coincide with its Anniversary the EM section also awarded the very first RMS Alan Agar Medal for Electron Microscopy. The medal was awarded to Dr Mathieu Kociak, a research director of the CNRS, at Université Paris-Sud, France by Dr Paul Verkade, Chair of the RMS EM Section, and Mrs Helen Pimblett, Alan Agar’s daughter. Dr Kociak has pioneered the use of cathodoluminescence in the scanning transmission electron microscope for the study of quantum photonics.  In his presentation at the meeting, he explained how a sub-nanometre scale electron probe can be used to excite the emission of photons in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and that therefore the light emission of quantum structures can be studied at a spatial resolution higher than would be allowed by a light-based probe.

The day after the Electron Microscopy Section 50^th anniversary meeting there was a change of focus from a celebration of the achievements of an established RMS section, to a new beginning for a network bringing together UK electron microscopists.

EM-UK has been set up to provide a voice for the EM community within the UK.  It is a cross-disciplinary network for anyone who has an interest in electron microscopy, whether they are mostly associated with academia, industry or manufacturing.  This network aims to bring together those working within biological sciences and physical sciences for discussions regarding scientific and technical issues, facility management matters, staffing and current hot topics and opinions.  There is significant support from UK Research Councils, particularly BBSRC, who are interested in hearing the opinions of the community.

The first meeting of EM-UK started with an update from the BioimagingUK community followed by an update from the EPSRC Advanced Microscopy Working Group.  Both physical scientists and life scientists are well represented within EM-UK so the actions of both these groups are of interest and will be closely followed in the future. Later in the day; the topics of centre management and core facility staff career structures were addressed and discussed, allowing attendees to talk about the issues that influence their working lives.

This meeting of EM-UK was organised to gauge interest from the community and to assess where the hot topics for future discussions lie. There is a great amount of enthusiasm for this network and a number of topics relevant to all disciplines attracted discussion, including practicalities of facility management, career progression and training opportunities. These topics will provide focal points for future meetings to allow more detailed discussions, leading to recommendations which can be forwarded to the relevant bodies.

For more immediate discussions, a mailing list has been created to give the community an opportunity to ask relevant questions, present opinions on hot topics and advertise training courses or job vacancies.  This mailing list is for anyone with a working interest in electron microscopy, whether you are a student, researcher, facility manager, applications specialist or director from the academic, commercial or industrial sector.
More information on EM-UK and details of the mailing list can be found at www.rms.org.uk/em-uk