An award is made to The University of Toledo (UT) to do research on a number of projects that require visualization of very fine detail at very high magnifications. The award will allow the University to purchase a transmission electron microscope (TEM) with capabilities that are currently unavailable at UT. The microscope will be able to construct three dimensional computer images from many photographs and enable scientists to characterize sample structure from many angles of view. The instrument will provide undergraduate and graduate students hands-on opportunities in the electron microscopy laboratory to learn techniques and apply the technology to classroom and research projects. The new TEM will strengthen a current outreach program that provides middle, high school, and students at community colleges with a "remote-controlled" science experience. This outreach educational program provides area schoolteachers with an additional resource to enhance the education of their students by exposing them to the scientific method in action with "live" imaging of research samples. The TEM will be operated by remote control from these regional classrooms and lead to conversations about science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) education, research, and career opportunities that they can pursue. The microscope will also be used by commercial start-up companies in UT's business incubator, Rocket Innovations, which among its mission goals, creates a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among students, graduates and faculty. The new TEM will also allow UT researchers to study bacteria in Lake Erie that have threatened Toledo's and Northwest Ohio's drinking water in recent years; one of these organisms produces a toxin that is a known danger to people living in the area.
Acquisition of the new TEM will advance UT's innovative, multidisciplinary research in both life science and material/physical science research and student training. The new TEM will benefit many biologists that have a common interest to learn how cells develop internal structures, especially how structures effect cell motility (i.e., filaments, fibers, and cilia) or to study how cells react to toxins and the process of how cells die. The biology projects that depend on this TEM will 1) revolutionize understanding of animal fertilization and 2) enable improve understanding of cell metabolism, cell movement, and lysosomal biology. Some UT scientists study sensitive thin films that are important in developing higher efficiency solar panels; the new TEM will enable them to map thin film chemical make-up and evaluate the electrical properties of these samples in virtual 3 dimension computer projections. The new TEM will provide a research tool with abilities that are not currently available at UT and it will enhance the ability of UT students and researchers to explore new ideas. The research that UT students and faculty conduct will include novel results that will be communicated with both the general public and scientific communities in local high school classrooms, at local, regional, national scientific, and international meetings and seminars, and data will be published in peer-reviewed journals.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
