About Us

The University of Sydney's Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) is the largest and most comprehensive facility of its type in Australia. It incorporates the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, and headquarters the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF). Further, it is a node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals. Researchers have access to an outstanding array of nanostructural analysis equipment, both within the Unit and at our partner nodes. The EMU is a major contributor to the University's research output, and plays a vital role in supporting the microscopy and wider community through training, award courses and consulting.

The Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis

The Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, based at the University of Sydney and was established in 1995, funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council.

Organisationally, the centre is part of the University’s Electron Microscope Unit, which is the largest and most comprehensive facility of its type in the southern hemisphere. The Key Centre’s Director is .

The Key Centre’s aims are:

• To become a premier resource and training centre for the industry, the research and the education sector.
• To provide outstanding microscopy and microanalysis services to industry and the education community.
• To establish a national network of equipment and expertise.
• To promote microscopy and microanalysis in all sections of the community.

The Key Centre meets these aims through consulting and collaborative research activities with industry, community outreach programs, particularly to schools, and through its education and training programs.

The Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF)

Established in July 2007 under the Commonwealth Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the AMMRF is a joint venture between Australian university-based microscopy and microanalysis centres. The AMMRF is a national grid of equipment, instrumentation and expertise in microscopy, microanalysis, electron and x-ray diffraction and spectroscopy providing nanostructural characterisation capability and services to all areas of nanotechnology and biotechnology research.

Operating in nodes located in major capital cities (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Sydney) with links to smaller units in specialist facilities, the Facility provides access to a vast array of instrumentation. These include widely used optical, electron, x-ray and ion beam techniques and importantly, that form world leading capabilities. Such capabilities include pulsed-laser local electrode atom probe, high-throughput cryo-electron tomography, high-resolution SEM and spectroscopy, high-precision ion microprobe and ultra-high resolution TEM platforms.

By combining new flagships with existing capabilities, the Facility offers a complete, modern suite of instruments accessible to all Australian publicly researches on merit basis and a nominal fee schedule. Industry based researchers can also access the facilities for proprietary research at commercial rates.

This collaborative facility, comprised of research expertise and research infrastructure, is accessible by all Australian researchers, enabling discovery, innovation and ingenuity in Australian science.

The AMMRF is based around a nodal structure of major microscopy centres, together with Linked Laboratories and Linked Centres.

The AMMRF is funded by

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals coordinates the principal materials research groups in Australia, and their internationally-competitive research strengths, to provide a research platform that will assist expansion of the light metals industry, both nationally and globally.

The Centre of Excellence comprises Monash University (Department of Materials Engineering), The University of Queensland (School of Engineering), The University of New South Wales, (School of Materials Science and Engineering), Deakin University (School of Engineering and Technology), The University of Sydney (Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis), and The University of Melbourne (Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering).

Background information

The EMU was established in 1958 as a "new type of service unit in the form of a central Electron Microscope Unit, independent of any department or even faculty, in which the facilities of electron microscopy would be available to any researcher in the University which demanded them" (see also Golden Jubilee 2008). Today, the Unit's charter has expanded to providing facilities, training and expertise in microscopy, microanalysis and associated techniques which employ ion beams, x-rays, light and laser optics as well as electrons.

In 1995, the Australian Research Council (ARC) established the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis at the Unit under the ARC's Research Centres Program. The Key Centre is a national leader and focal point in research involving the development of new methodologies and techniques as well as advanced applications of microscopy and microanalysis. It offers leadership in these research areas as well as the delivery of award programs of study in microscopy and microanalysis. The Key Centre is also the Unit's vehicle for industry and community outreach.

In 2002, the Commonwealth Government established the Nanostructural Analysis Network Organisation (NANO) Major National Research Facility (MNRF) under the Backing Australia's Ability Program. NANO was headquartered at the EMU, and after five years of successful operation, the MNRF came to the end of its funding period on 30 June 2007.

In July 2007, the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF) has been established under the Commonwealth Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The Unit headquarters the the AMMRF, Australia's leading facility for characterisation of matter on a fine scale.

The Team

The Centre currently has a cohort of more than 40 staff, and this number continues to grow. Under the leadership of Prof. Simon Ringer, a team of 5 academics provides overall guidance. The academics collaborate on their research programs with approximately 15 research associates and around 20 PhD students, also with more on the way.

These academics, researchers and students, and the users of the unit, are supported by 17 expert technical staff. The 6 staff in the business & administration team ensure the smooth running of the Key Centre, the Electron Microscope Unit and the AMMRF.

EMU staff at the Future Focus Day in December 2006.