Prof. Wil Bigelow with a detailed balloon model of the 2100F TEM column on his 100th birthday.
Friends of Prof. Wilbur (Wil) Bigelow, Professor Emeritus at University of Michigan and Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America, threw a surprise 100th birthday party for him at the University of Michigan’s Dept. of Materials Science & Engineering in Ann Arbor on March 16. (His actual birthday was March 18). Among his colleagues and past students that attended were renowned researchers Larry Allard and John Mardinly.
Larry Allard (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) reported that, “The department hired a local balloon artist to make the balloon model of the 2100F microscope, shown in the poster with a slightly younger Wil sitting in front. The picture was also placed in the cake. It was a total surprise to Wil. The balloon model took an entire day to construct...it was pretty unique. I did a presentation of some of his early history, including my training on the JEM-6A in 1963, through the early 70s, right after I returned to Ann Arbor after 2 years in Oak Ridge, when John Mardinly came into the lab, shortly after the 1st JSM-U3 SEM was acquired. John covered the next decade or so, which included acquisition of the 2nd JSM-U3 and the JEM-100CX AEM, and the naming of the EMAL (Electron Microprobe Analysis Laboratory). John Mansfield wrapped up with the final history of the EMAL, and the move of the lab from Main Campus to North Campus.”
Prof. Wil Bigelow honored with a special cake and the blue and gold theme of University of Michigan.
It's an honor to know these great researchers and we wish Wil all the best in his 100th year!
More about this legendary man:
Dr. Larry Allard (Oak Ridge), Pete Genovese (JEOL), and Prof. Wil Bigelow at JEOL’s 70th anniversary celebration in 2019.