The acronym for “certified electron microscopy technologist” is CEMT, and these letters designate the bearer as having passed the written and practical exams necessary to become “certified”! The acronym was approved by the MSA Council to more firmly provide a professional identification of certification in the area of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of biological tissue. A CEMT may use these initials after his or her name for as long as the certification remains valid (for example, Jane Doe, AA, BS, CEMT).

Thanks very much for the opportunity to speak to you about Shared and High-End Instrumentation Programs at the NIH. There are differences and overlaps among the instrumentation programs in different government agencies. I hope you will find my presentation informative. The Shared and High-End Instrumentation Grant Programs (SIG/HEI) have been administered by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) since their inception in 1982, more than 30 years ago by Dr. Marjorie Tingle who retired in September of 2011. After the dissolution of NCRR at the end of 2011, SIG/HEI Programs were moved to NIH's Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) under the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) in Office of the Director (OD). The current Program Director of the SIG/HEI is Dr. Abraham Levy. These programs provide funds to research laboratories to purchase or upgrade expensive equipment too costly to obtain with regular NIH grants. SIG Program provides funds for the cost range of $100,000–$600,000, and HEI Program provides funds from $750K–$2M.

NanoGrande is the culmination of an art-science effort that brought undergraduate students and faculty from science, engineering, and the visual arts together with professional microscopists of the Capital District Microscopy and Microanalysis Society for electron microscopy education and outreach. Students from two independent undergraduate courses, an advanced photography course and a microscopy laboratory course, collaborated on the project. The participants represented a wide range of majors, including chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, bioengineering, psychology, neuroscience, sociology/social sciences, history, and the visual arts. Emphasis was placed on both the scientific and the artistic aspects of the imaging process. The creation of electron microscopy images that were at the same time scientifically meaningful and visually compelling depended critically on communication of insights and ideas between paired students. The collaboration generated an art-science exhibition, NanoGrande, that has been presented to over four-thousand K through 12 students.

Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) 2012 celebrated the first 70 years of the Microscopy Society of America and energized attendees about present and future directions in our field. This joint meeting of the Microscopy Society of America, the Microanalysis Society, and the International Metallographic Society was held in Phoenix, Arizona, July 29–August 2, 2012. The conference had a robust technical program with 996 technical papers, 1,586 scientific attendees, and a total attendance of 2,648. Thirty-six different countries were represented among the attendees. The exhibition showcased 120 companies spread over 363 booths occupying 36,300 square feet of floor space.

Robert Hooke was a brilliant British experimental and theoretical scientist who lived and worked in London during the seventeenth century. As a child, Hooke suffered from a devastating case of smallpox that left him physically and emotionally scarred for the rest of his life. He was born the son of a minister on July 18, 1635, at Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight. Hooke's father, John Hooke, took an active role in Robert's early education until he entered the Westminster School at the age of thirteen following his father's suicide. After graduating Westminster in 1648, Hooke first conducted an apprenticeship with artist Sir Peter Lely and then entered Oxford University where he met and studied under some of the greatest scientists in England. Hooke eventually became a paid assistant for Robert Boyle and helped develop a working air pump. He remained in Boyle's laboratory until 1662 when he was made curator of experiments for the Royal Society of London, a job that entailed demonstration of scientific equipment and experimental procedures during weekly meetings of the entire society.

James Bradley was an English astronomer most famous for his discovery of the aberration of starlight. The finding was an important piece of evidence supporting Copernicus's theory that the Earth moved around the sun and also provided an alternative way to estimate the velocity of light.

In the early twentieth century, the long standing argument about whether the character of light was particle-based or wavelike was finally coming to an end as the scientists of the day began to accept that light could assume a dual nature. The possibility that such a duality might apply to matter as well as light was first proposed by physicist Louis de Broglie. Born in Dieppe, France, de Broglie studied in Paris and was descended from members of the French nobility. In his youth, he considered a career as a diplomat but later turned to science and pursued the study of theoretical physics. His brother, Maurice, who had also decided to become a physicist and made many advances in the study of X rays, reportedly had a considerable influence on de Broglie and was the first to introduce him to the work of Albert Einstein and Max Planck.

Leica Microsystems is a world leader in microscopes and scientific instruments. Founded as a family business in the nineteenth century, the company's history was marked by unparalleled innovation on its way to becoming a global enterprise. Its historically close cooperation with the scientific community is the key to Leica Microsystems' tradition of innovation, which draws on users' ideas and creates solutions tailored to their requirements.

Étienne-Jules Marey was born in Beaune, France, on March 5, 1830, to a wine merchant and a teacher. To satisfy his father's wishes, he decided to study medicine, attending the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. Marey's fascination with both animals and mechanics inspired him to concentrate on physiology, and it was during his investigations of this field that he became involved in optics.

Moxtek is the leading manufacturer of nano-optical and X-ray components, including high performance X-ray windows for demanding applications. AP3 ultra-thin polymer windows offer the highest transmission of low energy X-rays. Moxtek DuraBeryllium® windows are highly reliable, are resistance to moisture and harsh chemicals, and are available in thicknesses down to 8 μm. Moxtek also provides window solutions for sealed and flow proportional counters. Moxtek X-ray products (X-ray windows, X-ray JFETs, miniature/portable X-ray sources, X-ray detectors) enable compact handheld and benchtop elemental analysis for positive material identification. Moxtek products are used in various EDXRF systems for environmental screening, for hazardous substance analysis, and for sorting and recycling. Moxtek X-ray products are critical for optimal elemental analysis in electron microscopy, especially for low-Z elements. Moxtek strives to deliver products and services that meet or exceed customer requirements for performance, quality, and value.

Selected postings from the Microscopy Listserver from July 1, 2013 to September 1, 2013. Complete listings and subscription information can be obtained at http://www.microscopy.com. Postings may have been edited to conserve space or for clarity.

I am here to talk about the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and our funding opportunities. I will start with introductory slides because I'm not sure how familiar this audience is with our organization. ONR supports science and technology for the Navy, and you might think “How do I fit into this?” We have a two-billion-dollar portfolio for research. Some of this is sort of off-the-shelf, early stuff, the quick reaction. Then we have acquisition enablers. These two categories are short-term technologies. I'm going to talk about discovery and invention, which is the long-term basic research we support. It's about 40% of our portfolio or $900 million. The timeframe is basic research, and it covers our national naval responsibilities, and education and outreach, which is about 40% of our research, $900,000. In discovery and invention, we do research in naval-relevant areas. So our mission is very different from NSF and NIH, which are more broadly scientific-based.

The son of Russian peasants, Pavel Cherenkov faced a significant amount of adversity in his life, but he persevered admirably. He was born in the village of Novaya Chigla in the Vornezh province and grew up in a tumultuous time when Russia was engaged in war and revolution. At the age of two, Cherenkov lost his mother, and his father soon remarried, consigning much of his and his sister's upbringing to a stepmother. Later in his life, in 1938, he would also prematurely lose his father, who was killed under Stalin's regime for political reasons. As a child, Cherenkov reportedly exhibited a curious nature, was an avid reader, and performed well in school. In college, he studied mathematics and physics, graduating in 1928 from Vornezh University. Subsequently, in 1930, he married Marya Putintseva, with whom he would have two children. He relocated to Leningrad (now known as St. Petersburg) to embark on postgraduate research at the P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics in the Academy of Sciences.

Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions (OSIS) provides a decidedly simple answer to the often very diverse requirements in the fields of TEM and SEM applications: dedicated system solutions. This innovative approach helps the users to focus on the essentials—images and results.