Students, researchers and leaders from The Ohio State University as well as business and industry leaders recently gathered to celebrate the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis’ (CEMAS) 10th anniversary.
On January 17, guests came to CEMAS to look back on the impact CEMAS has had in a variety of fields, from materials development to cancer cells. The reception featured researchers, industry partners and esteemed guests.
The topics covered at the event included reviewing CEMAS’ successes in its first decade but also looking forward to how CEMAS can continue to lead innovations in electron microscopy in the next 10 years.
“It’s important to celebrate and see how far we have come and all the research we have impacted,” said Director David McComb, a professor of materials science and engineering who was recruited to Ohio State from Imperial College London in 2011 to design and lead CEMAS. “We also are looking forward to what CEMAS is poised to do in the next decade.”
Speakers from Ohio State and CEMAS’ close industry partners shared remarks about collaborations in the last 10 years. Institute of Materials and Manufacturing Research Executive Director Steve Ringel spoke about how the amount of research enabled by CEMAS cannot be calculated due to its impact on winning large research programs across the university. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Chair Michael Mills also spoke about his work at CEMAS and how its inception has enabled MSE research.
Representatives from close industry partners also shared how their relationships with CEMAS have been beneficial over the last decade. Marc Peters from Thermo Fisher Scientific and Narayan Vishwanathan of Ametek both shared remarks about how these close relationships have formed over the past 10 years and have helped innovate electron microscopy.
The event also featured keynote presentations from two experts in electron microscopy.
Jennifer Dionne, senior associate vice provost of research platforms/shared facilities and an associate professor of materials science and engineering and radiology at Stanford University, spoke about enabling atomically optimized photocatalysts with optically coupled electron microscopy. Her research develops nanophotonic methods to observe and control chemical and biological processes as they unfold with nanometer-scale resolution, emphasizing critical challenges in global health and sustainability.
Elizabeth Wright, Henry Lardy Professor of biochemistry and director of the NIH Midwest Center for Cryo-Electron Tomography (MCCET), University of Wisconsin, Madison, is an expert in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and uses those technologies to determine the native-state structures of several bacterial species, bacteriophages, HIV-1, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), measles virus and other host-pathogen systems. She spoke about groundbreaking developments in correlative cryo-EM technologies to support in situ structural biology.
After the event, attendees were able to tour CEMAS’ facilities and see the instruments up close, while also getting to network with CEMAS experts.
Learn more about CEMAS’ first 10 years.