Louis M. Ross
Lou Ross is the Senior Electron Microscope Specialist in the Electron Microscopy Core Facility (EMCF) and Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri (MU) in Columbia.
Lou received his Bachelor’s degree in Geology at Washington University in St. Louis in 1975. As an undergraduate research assistant during his senior year, he was introduced to scanning electron microscopy and x-ray microanalysis (SEM/EDS) in the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, where he remained as a research technician through 1982. In that year, Lou moved to MU to oversee the electron microprobe laboratory in the Department of Geological Sciences. In his years at MU, he has overseen the consolidation of electron microscopy operations, culminating with the present EBCF in 2000. Lou now teaches two graduate courses in SEM/EDS at MU.
Lou has had a strong record of involvement in Microbeam Analysis Society (MAS) and its affiliated regional societies (AReS) since he joined MAS in 1985. In 1990, he co-founded MIKMAS (Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas MAS) and ten years later helped to orchestrate its merger with another regional society, forming the Central States Microscopy and Microanalysis Society (CSMMS); he served two terms as President of both MIKMAS and CSMMS.
Lou has served as MAS Membership Services Chair for the past ten years, during which time he has been instrumental in fostering communications between the MAS Council and its members along with interacting with the various MAS committees while overseeing all aspects of the membership operations. From 2008 to 2010, he served a three-year term as MAS Sustaining Membership Chair.