Event Showcases Atomic Resolution Microscopy

22 June 2005—A conference to commemorate the historical development of atomic resolution microscopy was held from 15 to 17 June on the Penn State University Park campus.

The Penn State Physics Department, in association with the International Field Emission Society, sponsored the "Fiftieth Anniversary of Atomic Resolution Microscopy" to celebrate the earliest and later atomic-scale imaging and related analytical techniques, up to the present. Eminent scientists addressed the historical origins and applications of all the atomic-scale imaging and related techniques.

Participants also learned how atomic-scale imaging affects everyday life through its use in objects ranging from cell phones to airplanes to drugs. The celebration, of great interest to microscopists, materials scientists and surface scientists, emphasized the historic significance of the 50th anniversary of the first time that atoms were resolved by humans.

[ M C / B K K ]