EMSL: Monthly Report - August/September 2007

EMSL Monthly Report: August/September 2007

Professional/Community Service

EMSL Scientific Facility Lead Finding Solutions for Contaminated Sites in Russia. Roy Gephart, Scientific Facility Lead for the Chemistry and Physics of Complex Systems Facility, and Don Bradley, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, recently visited Russia and provided environmental cleanup recommendations. Gephart and Bradley were part of a six-member U.S. delegation that met with Russian representatives in early June. In addition to reviewing the current status of remediation at six Russian sites that are contaminated with radioactive materials, the participants talked about technologies needed to bring the sites to an internationally acceptable level of environmental cleanup. Members of the U.S. delegation were invited to participate by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The George Russell Family Fund provided financial support to the collaboration.

EMSL Hosts Microscopy Meeting. EMSL hosted the annual meeting of the Pacific Northwest Microscopy Society (PNMS) on September 20-21, 2007. Over 40 participants from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, including participants from PNNL, attended the meeting, which was led by current PNMS president and EMSL staff member A Dohnalkova. The scientific program included 20 talks on the latest advances in microscopy in the biological and physical sciences, and a keynote speech that addressed three-dimensional reconstruction and visualization. Participants received a tour of the EMSL facility. Twelve participants attended a hands-on workshop on TEM tomography as demonstrated on the EMSL Tecnai T-12 electron microscope, with complete reconstruction and three-dimensional modeling done a sample provided by one of the participants. The vendors' exhibition featured a compact Hitachi bench-top scanning electron microscope, and an array of optical microscopes suitable for educational outreach programs. The conference banquet, which included student poster-session awards announcements, was held Thursday evening. Several discussions of possible EMSL user collaborations were initiated by visitors during the meeting.