The votes are in: 2021 MAS Leadership Election Results

Thanks to everyone who voted in the 2021 MAS Leadership Election!
Joining MAS Council in the new year are:
President-Elect: Pat Camus
Treasurer – Dave Tomlin
Director – Angela Halfpenny
Director – Josh Taillon
Commercial Director: Steve Seddio
Happy Holidays from MAS! Wishing you a new year of health and happiness.
Heather Lowers, MAS President

The M&M 2021 Submission Site is now open!

Get ready for M&M 2021! Mark your calendar and Save the Date for the premier microscopy education and networking event of the year — Microscopy & Microanalysis 2021, August 1-5, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

 

Go to the M&M 2021 website and click on the Submit Your Paper button, or go directly to the submission site:
The submission deadline is Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:59 PM, U.S. Eastern Time.

 

This year, presenters will have to option to indicate their presentation preference (Virtual or In-Person) during the submission process. Even if you know you cannot attend the in-person meeting, please still submit your paper! The submission site will not open again after the deadline.
Look for the M&M 2021 Call for Papers Brochure with the November/December issue of Microscopy Today. For more information on M&M 2021, visit the website at https://www.microscopy.org/MandM/2021/.

Upcoming: ASTM E42 Surface Analysis Community Forum on 11/06/2020

ASTM committee E42 on surface analysis invites you to attend our community forum discussion on issues affecting credibility in XPS analysis and interpretation.  

 

ASTM E42 Surface Analysis Community Forum

Friday, November 6, 2020,

12:00 EST (18:00 Europe, 17:00 UK, 09:00 Pacific US)

Duration: 90 minutes

 ASTM WebEx Meeting Registration Link

https://astm.webex.com/astm/j.php?RGID=r9eef58a8e94646b8d9cb098bb0a671f5

Registration required to receive meeting login.

 

Data in the literature that is poorly acquired, analyzed, or presented can have far reaching effects on the credibility of any technique.  Ensuring that the community has the resources available to help the expanding user base will benefit us all

Join us for a virtual discussion of this surface analysis research community topic and help determine the best solution path that addresses these pressing issues.

Leading experts will lead discussion with participants, laying out the specifics of the problem, explaining how this has progressed and the resources currently available, and then looking forward to how we can improve the resources available and their distribution, with a goal of providing tools to improve research results.

 

The Problem, as it affects the research community

Matt Linford will describe a multi-institutional and multi-country analysis of XPS reported in three scientific journals which demonstrates significant problems in the analysis of XPS data appearing in the literature. He will describe a quantitative assessment of the problems and report information learned about the most common issues that have been observed.

 

The Structure of the current toolkit

Mark Engelhard will then provide a short summary of early issues in XPS analysis which motivated the creation of the standards committees ASTM E42 and ISO TC201, and will summarize the types of standards and guides that have been created, and explain some of the inter-relationships among relevant surface analysis standards in E42 and TC201.   Recent investigations questioning the adequacy of the reporting of analysis information specified in ISO and ASTM standards will be discussed, as an example of the limitations of the standards and guides in meeting the community data reporting challenges.

 

The Strategy Going Forward

Don Baer will relay the development of recent guides that are intended to help address the issues and explain what is still in the pipeline.  He will explore other tools that might be useful, including the possibility of an XPS reporting guide that could indicate prescribed reporting for levels of confidence and the work towards normalization of these.  One objective of this presentation is to seek community input on tools and/or other approaches on how to decrease the incorrect XPS data reports in the literature.  Such discussion can guide development of ASTM 42, ISO TC201, AVS Recommended Practices and other activities.

Together, we can build a framework to ensure that resource is available for the research community to help improve the quality of surface analysis result reporting!

MAS webinar: “TKD 101: An Introduction to Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction”

Please join us for another MAS webinar! Chad Parish, Research and Development Staff Member in the Radiation Effects and Microstructural Analysis Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and long-time MAS member will talk about about the basics of Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction, analytical strategies and error sources and show a few examples of practical materials problem solving using TKD.

The live webinar will consist of a 50-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A. The webinar is free but requires a registration.

When: November 20, 2020 at 1 p.m. EDT.

Registration: https://umn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__vfPG3FBQAOzcYuIVfso2g

Webinar description: Over the last two to three decades, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) emerged as one of the most powerful and exciting methods in electron microscopy to quantify the crystallographic microstructures of materials. Over the last decade or so, transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) has emerged as a vital and important complement to EBSD.

In TKD, a thin specimen (as might be used for transmission electron microscopy) is mounted into the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and held very near (<10 mm) the objective lens. Electron Kikuchi diffraction patterns are then acquired using the EBSD hardware, but in transmission mode and from the electron exit surface of the foil, as opposed to reflection mode from the entrance surface as in EBSD. This provides improved spatial resolution, often 10 nm or finer, compared to several hundred nm or coarser in conventional EBSD. This opens unprecedented capabilities for materials analysis.

This seminar will (1) briefly discuss the basics of TKD and put them into their historical perspective compared to EBSD; (2) discuss how to acquire TKD data, with emphasis on artifacts, errors, and things to watch out for; and (3) show a few examples of practical materials problem solving using TKD.

This work is supported by US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences, under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.

Keywords: SEM, TKD, EBSD

Webinar Speaker: Dr. Chad Parish is a Research and Development Staff Member in the Radiation Effects and Microstructural Analysis Group, Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research involves electron microscopy to solve problems in materials for nuclear energy systems. Chad has been an MAS member since 2004 and the Secretary of MAS since 2018.

New President’s Address

Read here the letter from our new MAS president Heather Lowers!

MAS webinar: “Correcting the Scientific Record: RNA Mediation of Pd Metal-Metal Bonds”

Please join us for another MAS webinar on September 22 2020 at 2 p.m. (EDT)! Leonard Donovan, Oak Ridge National Laboratory will talk about RNA Mediation of Pd Metal-Metal Bonds and his role in correcting the scientific record. The live webinar will consist of a 50-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A.

Solicitation of Nominations for MAS Fellow and New Nomination Deadline

***New Deadline for MAS Fellows Nominations***

Dear MAS Members,

The Microanalysis Society is soliciting nominations for the 2021 Class of MAS Fellows. This 2021 Class should represent outstanding MAS members who have made sustained contributions to the field and the Society. Fellows serve as ambassadors of the Society to the community and the greater public. They should inspire younger individuals to reach for greater achievements. The Awards will be presented at M&M 2021.

Please consider any nominations you wish to make and submit a 2021 Fellow nomination package. The deadline for 2021 nominations is September 30, 2020. You may find directions for the nomination at https://the-mas.org/awards/mas-fellows/.

Our long-term target is that no more than 10% of MAS membership will be designated “Fellow” at any given time. With the first three Classes of Fellows, we achieved this goal. Hereafter, we expect to elect about 0.5% of the membership (about two) each year.

Thank you in advance in behalf of the Fellows Committee of MAS.

Tom Kelly

Chair, MAS Fellows Committee

Congratulations to the 2020 M&M Scholar Award Winners!

Each year the MAS supports students to attend the Microscopy and Microanalysis annual meeting. The M&M scholar awards are conferred for outstanding papers contributed to the Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) meeting, which are competitively judged based upon the quality of the submitted paper.

Please find here the list of this year’s students and post-doctoral scholars and consider seeking out their presentations at the upcoming M&M conference.

 

M&M 2020: Panel Discussion on Mentoring for an Inclusive M&M Community

Please join us for a Panel Discussion on Mentoring for an Inclusive M&M Community.

Featuring: Treva Brown, Deb Kelly, Vinayak Dravid, and Grace Burke

Tuesday, August 4, 12-1 CDT

Submit questions in advance to inclusiveM2@the-mas.org, or live by chat window

Congratulations to Best Paper Award Winners!

Each years, MAS gives out awards for superior microanalysis papers presented at the previous year’s Microscopy and Microanalysis meeting, judged to be best in each of four categories. See who this year’s winners are.

Congratulations to the 2020 Major Award Winners!

The Major Awards of the Society honor distinguished scientific contributions to the field of microscopy and microanalysis by technologists and by scientists at various career stages, as well as distinguished service to the Society. The honor will be conferred at the Microscopy & Microanalysis 2020 (M&M 2020) meeting.

Congratulations to the Class of 2020 MAS Fellows!

The Microanalysis Society will induct three more members of the Society as the Class of 2020 MAS Fellows. The honor will be conferred at the Microscopy & Microanalysis 2020 (M&M 2020) meeting. Members of the Class of 2020 MAS Fellows are Christopher Kiely, Lothar Strüder, and Yimei Zhu.

The Virtual M&M 2020 Schedule Is Out Now!

M&M 2020

The virtual M&M 2020 schedule is out now! https://www.microscopy.org/MandM/2020/MM2020_schedule.pdf

Have a look at the meeting website: https://www.microscopy.org/MandM/2020/

To register for the ‘Preparing for M&M’ webinar, presented by the Microscopy Society Student Council on July 16 at 4 p.m. (EDT), go to:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeyjz5Ky2EvVvYJYVIDt5mR6kDJjuNXT68Yz3ohAObqcvjrqQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

MAS Webinar: Surface Microscopy and Microanalysis in an Industrial Research and Development Laboratory: General Electric – Research

Please join us for our first MAS webinar on July 15, 2020 at 2 p.m. (EDT)! Vin Smentkowski will cover various techniques for Surface Microscopy and Microanalysis in the Industrial Research and Development Laboratory at GE. The live webinar will consist of a 50 minute presentation, followed by a Q&A.

NIST Workshop (2020-07-13): Current Status and Future Perspective of In-Situ Electron Microscopy for Electronic and Quantum Materials

New developments in electron microscopy (EM) instrumentation now enable the observation and measurement of nanoscale processes in electronic and quantum materials for in situ/operando experiments. These experiments can provide fundamental insight into the structure, chemistry, and functionality of materials in their native or working conditions, measured at high spatial resolution and under various stimuli, such as heat, light, biasing, and liquid/gas environments.

This one-day virtual workshop organized by the Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy (ETEM) Team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will provide a platform for sharing the state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques that capture dynamic processes in electronic and quantum materials, and drawing attention to the emerging technologies in data acquisition and analysis. We will use the open discussion panel to identify current challenges and opportunities in the field, which could be addressed using the available tools.

This workshop recognizes the frontier research in the field of in-situ transmission electron microscopy and the future horizon focused on electronic and quantum materials, in honor of the multimodal approach for ETEM pioneered by Dr. Renu Sharma, who retired from NIST in November 2019. Renu has been a long-time advocate in the research fields of materials science and electron microscopy. Her contribution to in-situ electron microscopy is unparalleled.

The format of the workshop will include live-streaming lectures given by the invited speakers, and an open discussion panel.

There is no fee to attend this virtual workshop.

The workshop will be held on July 13, 2020. Registration closes on July 09, 2020.

Registration, the speaker schedule, and more details can be found here.