Dr. Dellby had a pivotal impact on the field of microanalysis, helping to usher in a paradigm shift in aberration correction to drastically improve the capabilities and sensitivity for current-generation
transmission electron microscopes. Originally hailing from Sweden, Dr. Dellby earned a Master’s degree from the Institute of Technology at Linköping University, studying in the United States through an
exchange program with Stanford University. He began a doctoral program in theoretical physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. As a side project to his graduate research, he worked for Gatan, Inc. to design and build electronics for parallel detection electron energy-loss spectrometry (EELS), the Gatan imaging filter (GIF), and the DigiScan.
After earning his Ph.D. in 1995, Dr. Dellby joined Dr. Ondrej Krivanek at the famous Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University to design software and electronics for a proof-of-concept Cs corrector, thought to be an impossibly complex challenge at the time. The team succeeded in their herculean task, eliminating spherical aberrations and demonstrating improved imaging performance on an old VG HB5 scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with a quadrupole-octupole C3 corrector.
Following this success, the duo of Drs. Krivanek and Dellby established the Nion Company in 1997, with Dr. Dellby serving as Chief Scientist. By 2002, Nion correctors were enabling STEM imaging with subÅngstrom probes. When Nion shifted their priority from correctors to developing an entire microscope column, Dr. Dellby designed essential electronic systems, software algorithms, and optimized electron optical trajectories, allowing for more flexible electron illumination systems, high-performance detector couplings, and improved column and sample stage stability.
Installation of Nion STEMs at research institutions across the globe led to new breakthroughs and discoveries in the field of electron microscopy, with new capabilities such as atomic -resolution
EELS spectrum imaging and atom-by-atom characterization of 2D materials. Dr. Dellby played a critical role in the development of the 200 keV cold field emission gun and monochromator for Nion Co., which opened new opportunities for phonon spectroscopy and measurement of infrared-active low-loss modes. He continues to develop and support new instrumentation breakthroughs at Nion, looking toward a future where low-loss (<3 meV) EELS is a matter of routine.
The MAS Peter Duncumb award is the first recognition of Dr. Dellby’s contributions by a scientific society.