50 Great Moments

During the 1950s, with the electron microscope fast becoming the characterisation tool par excellence for many scientific and engineering disciplines, the University of Sydney recognised that its academic community needed access to electron microscopy to do quality research. In 1958, in a bold move, the University established a centralised facility – the Electron Microscope Unit – comprising two support staff and the premier microscope of the day, the Siemens Elmiskop I. The Electron Microscope Unit was unique for its time and has since become a model for many advanced microscopy centres at other universities. During the past 50 years, the unit has supported a steadily growing amount and diversity of research, and has developed into an integral part of the University. Today, the Electron Microscope Unit has nearly 30 different microscopes and more than 45 staff members.

This captivating book presents 50 great moments from the past five decades of the Electron Microscope Unit's activities. Blending history and science in an engaging style, 50 Great Moments tells the story of the unit's creation and profiles the key figures that have forged the facility into the success that it is today. The book looks at the instruments, events and achievements that have defined the unit's character and contributed so much to Australian microscopy and microanalysis. Finally, this volume explores some of the important research done by the scientists and engineers who have used the unit's advanced microscopes.

This book makes a fascinating read for those with an interest in the historical development of Australian microscopy and microanalysis, and it will be an important reference for scholars studying the history of our nation's science.

Kyle Ratinac is the medicine and health sciences faculty research manager at Macquarie University.

List of acronyms
Prefixes and units
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Simon Ringer

1. Towards an electron microscope unit
   Kyle Ratinac
2. The first director, Dr D. Gordon Drummond
   Kyle Ratinac
3. The early days of the Electron Microscope Unit
   David Gordon Drummond
4. Transmission electron microscopy
   Kyle Ratinac
5. Specimen preparation in the biological sciences
   Maret Vesk and Anne Simpson
6. First vacation school in electron microscopy
   Kyle Ratinac and Anne Simpson
7. Exploring the ultrastructure of plants
   Maret Vesk
8. Academic status: ‘a rose by any other name ...’
   Maret Vesk
9. Scanning electron microscopy
   Kyle Ratinac
10. Specimen preparation in the physical sciences
    Kyle Ratinac and Adam Sikorski
11. The second director, Professor David J.H. Cockayne
    Kyle Ratinac
12. School visits and Schools Open Days
    Clare O'Connor
13. X-ray microanalysis and the Australian Microbeam Analysis Society
    Clive Nockolds and Kyle Ratinac
14. Thursday lunches
    Anthony Romeo, Teresa Dibbayawan and Kyle Ratinac
15. That hit a nerve: the structure and regeneration of nerve grafts
    Kyle Ratinac
16. Organising microscopy conferences
    Guy Cox and David Cockayne
17. Cryogenic specimen preparation
    Guy Cox
18. The move to the Madsen Building
    David Cockayne
19. EMUser and the EMU newsletter
    David Cockayne and Kyle Ratinac
20. Image analysis
    Guy Cox and Allan Jones
21. Fracture of materials: learning from failure
    Kyle Ratinac
22. The Australian EM Newsletter
    Guy Cox
23. International workshops: the EMU goes global
    Maret Vesk and Guy Cox
24. The NWG Macintosh Centre for Quaternary Dating
    Kyle Ratinac
25. Advanced transmission electron microscopy
    Kyle Ratinac
26. The duty microscopist system
    David Cockayne
27. Optical microscopy
    Guy Cox
28. The radial distribution function of amorphous materials
    David Cockayne
29. The creation of Imagelab
    Dennis Dwarte
30. Scanning probe microscopy
    Filip Braet and Pall Thordarson
31. Establishment of the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis
    David Cockayne
32. The science of emulsion polymerisation
    Kyle Ratinac
33. e-Research: the EMU in the digital domain
    Peter Hines and Guy Cox
34. The Key Centre’s postgraduate coursework degrees
    Kyle Ratinac, Lilian Soon and Anne Simpson
35. Awards and honours to staff and students
    Lilian Soon
36. Microscopes on the Move officially launched
    Clare O'Connor
37. The third director, Professor Simon Ringer
    Kyle Ratinac
38. The deputy directors
    Kyle Ratinac
39. The laboratory managers
    Clare O'Connor
40. Fluorescent proteins of reef corals: natural sunscreens and biotechnological tools
    Anya Salih
41. The Nanostructural Analysis Network Organisation
    Clare O'Connor
42. X-ray microtomography at the EMU
    Allan Jones
43. The first PhD students enrol in the Key Centre
    Clare O'Connor and Kyle Ratinac
44. Putting the past under the microscope
    Wendy Reade and Judith Field
45. Atom probe tomography
    Kyle Ratinac
46. Involvement with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals
    Clare O'Connor
47. ‘In every atom slumbers the might of the self’: the science of atom probe tomography
    Michael Moody and Simon Ringer
48. Microscopy and sustainability
    Kyle Ratinac
49. Establishment of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility
    Julie Cairney
50. The golden jubilee of the Electron Microscope Unit
    Kyle Ratinac, Uli Eichhorn and Julie Cairney

Epilogue: a vision of the future
Simon Ringer
Appendix 1: a timeline of major events in the history of the EMU
Appendix 2: EMU staff list (1958–2008), NWG Macintosh Centre for Quaternary Dating
Appendix 3: the EMU's 40th anniversary celebrations
Appendix 4: newsletters produced by the EMU
About the authors