An award is made to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to acquire a Gatan K2 Summit camera for a Titan transmission electron microscope at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). The new camera will provide essential instrumentation for more than 20 UCLA-based laboratories in the schools/divisions of engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, medicine and dentistry. Cutting-edge structural characterization of a broad range of engineered and naturally-occurring nano-particles, nano-devices and nano-machines, as well as novel materials will be carried out by high-resolution electron microscopy and electron tomography for either improved design or for better understanding of their mechanisms of actions. The MRI will radically change the way data are acquired by enabling single electron detection and super resolution electron imaging for electron microscopy and tomography.
Activities supported by the new camera have the potential to impact scientific disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, microbiology, engineering and materials sciences, as well as society at large. By acting as a catalyst to enhance education in cross-disciplinary and out-reach programs, the installation of this new camera will boost research collaboration and interdisciplinary training for a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, and faculty across four major colleges at UCLA. The faculty members supported by the award all teach major courses at UCLA and will incorporate cutting-edge research results from this MRI into undergraduate and graduate courses. The MRI will further enhance CNSI?s outreach activities in the ethnically diverse Los Angeles metropolitan area and increase research participation by minority students at UCLA. Very broadly, the research results will be disseminated through publications, technology transfer, and workshops and symposia. CNSI?s strong entrepreneurship programs will also be leveraged to create new intellectual property, jobs, companies, and industries related to nano sciences and electron imaging
