History

50 Years of Excellence in Microscopy and Microanalysis

Back in the 1950s, there was growing demand from researchers across the University of Sydney for access to electron microscopy; this new technology was seen as an essential tool for research in both the life and the physical sciences.

The University of Sydney, with distinct farsightedness, decided to meet this need by providing an electron microscope and qualified support staff as part of a centralised campus facility that was to function as a 'corporate academic unit' independent of faculty, but that would serve all equally. Thus, was born the EMU in 1958.

Today, the EMU has grown from two staff and one microscope to a staff of over 40, including academic, research and technical staff, and nearly 20 PhD students. It is a centralised research facility of the University, providing researchers from across the campus and beyond with access to advanced instruments and expertise in microscopy and microanalysis. There are nearly 30 major instruments across transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, light-optical and confocal microscopy, scanned probe microscopy, atom probe tomography, X-ray microtomography and X-ray diffraction. Also available are dedicated specimen preparation laboratories for materials science, surface science, biological science, and live-cell culturing, and computational studios for image visualisation, simulation and analysis.

Typically the EMU supports more than 300 projects, the bulk of which come from the University of Sydney, with these facilities each year, generating some 30,000-35,000 hours of ‘beam-time’ per annum.