Medill graduate students tour the SHyNE facilities at NUANCE and NUCAPT

Last week, graduate students from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism toured Northwestern's Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental Center (NUANCE), the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT) and the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental Resource (SHyNE) facilities.

The students, who started their graduate studies this summer in Medill’s Health, Environment and Science Journalism Specialization, were first introduced to the scanning electron microscope (SEM) by SEM Facility Manager, Karl Hagglund. The SEM is a microscope that uses electrons instead of light to form an image and is one of the most useful instruments in research today.

Research Assistant Professor, Dieter Isheim, then led an interactive activity to showcase the abilities of the Local-Electrode Atom-Probe (LEAP) tomograph. The LEAP tomograph achieves  3-D atomic-scale analysis by using a high electric field to remove individual atoms from material surfaces and a position-sensitive detector to record information that reveals the atom's position and identity. Students were able to explore and navigate around the LEAP tomograph and its 3-D image on the computer.

The tour concluded with Director of Operations for SHyNE Resource, Ben Myers, answering questions and leading a tour of the new SHyNE facilities. Students were able to see new equipment that has arrived for SHyNE and the space where more instruments are expected.