Electron Microscopy
The RMS Electron Microscopy Section was founded in 1965 and serves to foster interest in all types of electron microscopy and analysis in academia and industry in the UK and beyond.
Electron Microscopy (EM), originally developed by Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll in the 1930s, is a high resolution imaging technique that provides key insights into the fundamental structure of all materials, both inorganic and organic. The EM Section of the RMS covers a wide range of expertise in sample preparation, imaging and analysis for scanning EM, transmission EM, STEM, volume EM, cryo EM, spatial analytical techniques and correlative imaging, with applications in the physical and life sciences. Section expertise also includes X-ray microscopy, which is often closely associated with EM analysis, sometimes as part of a multimodal workflow. These topics are the basis of various meetings and courses organised by the RMS in collaboration with the wider community and catering for all levels of user, from the beginner through to expert, and often considering emergent techniques and novel instrumentation. The Section includes representation from other EM groups and societies, including the Association of Clinical Electron Microscopists (ACEM), the Society for Electron Microscope Technology (SEMT), the Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group (EMAG), EM-UK and BioImagingUK.
Committee members represent a cross-section of electron microscopists with a remit to represent the interests of the wider EM community. Any Society member may be nominated to serve as an ordinary committee member when vacancies arise.
Download the Electron Microscopy Section Handbook
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Professor Asa Barber
Electron Microscopy Section Chair
South Bank University
Asa is Professor of Advanced Materials Engineering at the University of Portsmouth. His interests are in using microscopy to understand the relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties of complex systems, particularly hierarchical structures produced by biology. Asa is leading a major initiative in 3D imaging within a broader 3D engineering activity at the University of Portsmouth. -
Dr Lucy Collinson
Electron Microscopy Section Vice Chair
The Francis Crick Institute
Lucy is Head of Electron Microscopy at The Francis Crick Institute in London. Her degree and PhD were in Microbiology, followed by a post-doctoral position in Cell Biology using light and electron microscopy to investigate membrane trafficking pathways at University College London. Following that she ran biological EM facilities, first at UCL and then at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, which became part of the new Francis Crick Institute in 2015. Her microscopy interests cover 3D EM, Correlative Light and EM, X-ray microscopy, image analysis, and microscope design and prototyping. -
Dr Rebecca Thompson
Electron Microscopy Deputy Chair
University of Leeds
Rebecca is Facility Manager and senior cryo-electron microscopy (EM) support scientist at the Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, University of Leeds. Her research interests include imaging a broad range of biological specimens, from whole cells to macromolecular complexes, to high resolution using cryo-EM, and integrating data from EM with other microscopy techniques. -
Mr Mike Ashton
Intertek
Mike has over 42 years’ experience in all aspects of Home and Personal Care (Unilever) and Pharmaceutical (Intertek) microscopy, including LM; CLSM; SEM; TEM and associated preparation techniques, comprising of both manufacturing and troubleshooting applications. -
Dr Roland Fleck
King's College London
Roland is Reader and Director of the King's Centre for Ultra Structural Imaging -
Mr Gareth Jackson
Leica Microsystems
Gareth started his career in a clinical EM department in the early nineties. Since then he has worked for Olympus Microscopes and Leica Microsystems. Gareth is an active member of the EM committee and has been involved in many RMS courses over the years including the EM Summer School, Rothamsted Research Cryo Course and the Cell Imaging Techniques course at Oxford Brookes University. -
Dr Leandro Lemgruber
infocus Deputy Scientific Editor
Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology, University of Glasgow
Leandro obtained his PhD in Biophysics in Brazil, studying the cellular structure of parasites and the interaction with host cells. He did a Post-doc at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) working on the cytoskeleton dynamics of the Malaria parasite Plasmodium sp and its structural organization. He took a position as a Research Support Specialist at the Electron Microscopy Resource Center of The Rockefeller University (New York, USA) and afterwards a position of Research Associate at the National Technology Institute in Brazil. Since 2015 he manages the Imaging sector of the Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology at the University of Glasgow. Since his PhD, Leandro has applied optical, electron, super-resolution and cryo-microscopy in his work, as well as correlative microscopy. -
Dr Chris Parmenter
University of Nottingham
Christopher is a Research Officer in Cryogenic Electron Microscopy. His PhD is in polymer chemistry through which he developed skills in Cryo-TEM whilst investigating soft and biological systems. He recently moved into SEM, specifically Cryo-SEM and FIB-SEM of any samples where there is a nano-scale problem to solve or understand. He is keen to meet with other microscopists to further his knowledge of EM & other techniques.
Chris is currently the Editor of Microscopy & Analysis. -
Dr Natasha Stephen
Plymouth University
Natasha is a Lecturer in Advanced Analysis (Earth & Planetary Sciences) within the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences at Plymouth University, and assists with the management & development of Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre; the university’s flagship, multidisciplinary analytical suite. She completed her PhD at Imperial College London & the Natural History Museum London in 2014, focusing on the geology & surface mineralogy of Mars, and moved to Plymouth University straight afterwards. Natasha’s research focuses primarily on the use of meteorites to ground-truth spacecraft data at Mars (including Mars rovers and orbiters) as well as asteroids (Vesta, Itokawa etc.), by using various non-destructive analytical techniques. Natasha manages the Plymouth Planets research group, is an avid public speaker, heavily engaged in outreach activities, and an active member of the Meteoritical Society & Royal Astronomical Society. -
Dr Lore Troalen
National Museums Scotland
Lore is an Analytical Scientist at National Museums Scotland. She holds a PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Edinburgh and previously studied chemistry and archaeological science in France where she gained MSc qualifications from the Universities of Paris XI and Bordeaux III. She joined National Museums Scotland in 2005, where her research interests include the use of X-ray based and microscopic techniques for the study of ancient gold jewellery. -
Professor Paul Verkade
University of Bristol
Paul has been involved in electron microscopy for over 20 years now and during that time has developed a particular interest in technology development, mainly in the field of Correlative Light Electron Microscopy. He loves organising training events and as such has been involved in many courses. For the RMS he is involved in the Rothamsted Research Cryo Course and was a member of the organising committee for emc2012. -
Dr Alex Ball
Honorary Secretary Education (maternity leave cover)
Natural History Museum
Alex is the Head of Imaging and Analysis in the Core Research Laboratories at the Natural History Museum. He has over 25 years' experience in light and electron microscopy and has published research involving transmission and scanning electron microscopy, confocal microscopy and micro-CT. His PhD research involved the use of LM, SEM and SEM combined with computer-aided 3D reconstruction. Now his interests focus on non-destructive imaging and analysis of natural and cultural heritage samples. Over the course of his career Alex has had the good fortune to be tasked with setting up the NHM's micro-CT laboratory and more recently the 3D surface scanning facilities where our first job was to 3D scan an entire blue whale skeleton! He has a keen interest in outreach and education and has led the NHM's imaging activities at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival for over ten years and routinely participates in the NHM's public outreach events. -
Dr Anton Page
University of Southampton
Anton is a Clinical Scientist, senior clinical lecturer, and Director of the Biomedical Imaging Unit, a joint University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust core facility. He started off as a parasitologist at Imperial College and then moved into electron microscopy at Royal Holloway, University of London. He now heads a team providing a research and diagnostic service using light, X-ray and electron microscopes capable of 2-, 3- and 4D imaging. -
Dr Jeremy Rees
ThermoFisher
Jeremy has been using Electron Microscopy since 1982; initially for zoology research and then in biomedical research at a London hospital. He joined a large Pharmaceutical company and set up their imaging facilities in the late 80’s. Jeremy worked for FEI from 1994 as an applications specialist, area manager and as an account manager. In 2012 Jeremy set up a company promoting sample preparation solutions for electron microscopy and is also working on a Setting up an EM Laboratory book. -
Dr Thomas Walther
University of Sheffield
Thomas is Reader in Advanced Electron Microscopy at the University of Sheffield and Director of the Kroto Centre for High Resolution Imaging and Analysis.
His research areas include electron microscopy method development and instrumentation, in particular HREM, EFTEM, ADF-STEM, EELS, ELNES, EDX.
A focus is on quantitative analysis of semiconductor quantum wells and quantum dots, but also the study of interdiffusion and segregation at grain boundaries and within metal nano-particles.
He runs the Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials conference series which is alternatingly held in Oxford and Cambridge, always in odd years. -
Jennifer Simpson
Electron Microscopy Section Early Career Representative
The Pirbright Institute
Jennifer is the Bioimaging Laboratory Manager at The Pirbright Institute. She studied for a BSc Hons in Biology at the University of Portsmouth and joined The Pirbright Institute Bioimaging group in 2002. After leaving to work in an NHS histopathology laboratory for two years, she returned to The Pirbright Institute in 2012. She collaborates on a variety of research projects using confocal microscopy and electron microscopy including STED, CLEM and tomography. She was recently awarded the RMS Diploma for her project researching Marek’s disease virus in chicken feather follicle epithelium.
The 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Electron Microscopy Section of the Royal Microscopical Society took place virtually on 16 November 2020. The day also included a number of talks given by the Mid-Career Award winners.
All the Society’s AGMs are free to attend for both members and non-members. The 2021 AGM of the EM Section will take place in the Autumn, and further details will be available soon.
If you would like to make a committee member nomination, or if you are interested in joining any of the committees in the future, please contact Allison Winton.
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EM Section Chair Report
Download the EM Section Chair Report
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EM Section 2020 AGM Minutes
Download the EM Section 2020 AGM Minutes