Author: John Richard PORTER

SCSMM November Meeting features Prof. Bill Schopf, UCLA

John Richard PORTER / / Instrument Status

The Earliest History of Life: Solution to Darwin’s Dilemma

Director of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at UCLA, J. William Schopf received his undergraduate training in geology at Oberlin College, Ohio, and his Ph.D., in biology, from Harvard University.  A member of the UCLA faculty since 1968, he has received all of his university’s campus-wide faculty awards: for teaching, research, and academic excellence.  A leader in studies of the Precambrian (earliest 85%) history of life, he was the first to discover such ancient microorganisms in Australia, South Africa, the USSR, India, and China; published the first taxonomic monograph on Precambrian microbial communities; and is discoverer of the oldest fossils known.  His pioneering use of Raman imagery and confocal scanning laser microscopy to analyze the chemistry and cell structure of rock-embedded fossil microbes have revolutionized his field.  Schopf’s studies have been pivotal in extending the documented record of life to 3,500 million years ago, seven times earlier than was previously known.

Note:  this talk was the plenary talk at this year’s Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting in Portland.  It was an excellent talk and very interesting.

Meeting to be held on November 9 at 5pm in the CNSI building at UCLA.  Dinner is included.  $5 for students and $10 for everyone else. (subject to change!)

More details to follow.

SCSMM: Southern California Society for Microscopy and Microanalysis

Zeiss Center of Excellence to end September 30

John Richard PORTER / / Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence, Instrument Status, LEXI

We have been informed by Zeiss that the UltraPlus will not be returning to campus and that the EVO LS15 will be removed by Zeiss on October 1.  Please plan your use of the EVO accordingly.  Remember, the EVO still has great EDS capabilities with the Thermo SDD-based EDS system.

We will announce the arrival of the new replacement instrument as soon as we have more information.

SCSMM Full-Day Symposium, March 11, 2010

John Richard PORTER / / Events, Seminars & Classes, LEXI

Be there!  More details at www.scsmm.org

Beckman Institute

California Institute of Technology

Schedule

08:00 – 12:00      Registration, Continental Breakfast
Selection bagels, sweet rolls, mini croissants and mini-muffins along with tea, coffee, and juice

08:25      Welcome

08:30 – 09:00      Analytical Electron Microscopy of Zeolite Nucleation and Growth From Amorphous Gels
Krassimir Bozhilov, University of California, Riverside

09:00 – 09:30      Root Cause Analysis of Tungsten-Induced Protein Aggregation in Pre-filled Syringes
Gianni Torraca, Amgen

09:30 – 10:00      Failure Analysis of Semiconductor Laser Diodes
Brendan Foran, Aerospace Corp.

10:00 – 10:30       Coffee Break
All participants are invited to visit the Vendor Display tables

10:30 – 11:00      Nano-Mineralogy by Advanced Electron Microscopy: Discovering New Minerals in the Early Solar System
Chi Ma,  California Institute of Technology

11:00 – 12:00      Four (Under) Graduate Student Presentations:

Novel Nanostructures for Enhanced Endotheliazation on Bare-Metallic Stent Wire
Marianna Loya, University of California, San Diego

EBSD Investigation of Texture Development in Layer-grown Ti 6Al 4V
Brandon Saller, University of California, Irvine

Phase Transition Mechanism in Bulk Iron Oxide Nanocomposites
Sohanazaman Tanju, University of California, Riverside

Unshell the Potential Magic Bullet – Vesicular Stomatitis Virus in 3D
Peng Ge, University of California, Los Angeles

12:00 – 13:00      Lunch Break

13:00 – 13:20      SCSMM Business Meeting

13:20 – 13:50      Measuring Transport Into Artificial Cells With Confocal Microscopy
Noah Malmstadt, University of Southern California

13:50 – 15:00      Vendor Presentations:

EDS Analysis of Sub-Micron Structures Using Large Area Silicon Drift Detectors
Scott Sitzman, Oxford Instruments

Nanocone Chemical Analysis with Scanning Auger Microscopy
Ken Bomben, Physical Electronics

Advances in High Resolution Imaging with Helium Ion Microscopy
Arno Merkle, Carl Zeiss Co.

TEAM EDS Smart Features; Change the Way You Do Analysis Forever
Jack Rosek, EDAX

15:00 – 15:45      Coffee Break

15:45 – 16:30      Nicholas Ritchie (NIST, MAS Tour Speaker): “Standards-based Analysis – When and How?”

16:30 – 17:00      Tour of Caltech microscopy facility

17:00      Meeting adjourns

Poster Presentations

Title to be Announced
Mai Ng, University of California, Irvine

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Composite Cathode Performance and Morphology: Effects of Particle Size Distribution
Anh Duong, University of California, Irvine

Evaluating Thermally Grown Oxide in TBC Materials Under Humid Atmosphere
Matt Sullivan, University of California, Irvine

Directed Assembly of Nanoparticle Superstructures
Seth Taylor, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems

Title to be Announced
Matt Weeks, University of California, Irvine

The SCSMM acknowledges and thanks our vendors for their financial support of our All-day Symposium.

Registration and other details are posted
on the SCSMM website at:

www.scsmm.org.