November 5, 2007 (Peabody, Mass.) -- JEOL USA announced today that the University of Southern California (USC) has purchased six electron microscopes, including a newly introduced SEM-FIB (a dual column focused ion beam system) for the university's Center for Nano-Imaging in Los Angeles, California.
USC is the first U.S. customer to purchase the new JEOL MultiBeam, the JIB-4500, a high-performance SEM and micromilling FIB with LaB6 source. The MultiBeam will be housed in new laboratory space at USC, which will also receive a JEOL JSM-7001FLV low vacuum, field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a JSM-6490LV low vacuum tungsten SEM. USC experts in the fields of nanotechnology, biology, materials, and engineering will use the new instruments within the shared instrumentation facility.
Expanding Research Activities
USC is expanding research activities through new Provost inititatives in Biomedical Nanoscience and Future Fuels and Energy, initiatives that are emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, advancing science and meeting societal needs. The university, in partnership with JEOL, will equip the lab with advanced instrumentation and applications support, to create a center for advancing knowledge and research for both organizations, as well as provide a national demonstration and training facility.
Strategic Center of Excellence and Long-Term Partnership
"USC will be considered a strategic center of excellence by JEOL for the purposes of applications development, product planning and training," said Peter Genovese, Vice President and General Manager of Sales at JEOL USA. "In addition, semi-annual workshops will be held at USC for the purposes of presenting novel and advanced applications of SEM, FIB, and cryo-EM. We look forward to the opportunity to work with USC as they conduct advanced research.”
“USC is pleased to enter this long-term partnership with JEOL, a leading manufacturer of electron optical instrumentation,” said Steve Nutt, Professor of Materials Science and Director of the new Center of Excellence for Nano-Imaging. “These machines will comprise the cornerstone of a continuing effort to equip the campus with state-of-the-art instrumentation for imaging and microanalysis. Impact will be felt across multiple disciplines ranging from structural biology to physical sciences and engineering. A key aspect of the future partnership with JEOL will be the emphasis on developing new applications for the instruments.”
USC Ranked in Top Ten Engineering Schools
The University of Southern California is one of a small number of elite research institutions in the United States. Its Viterbi School of Engineering, which recently celebrated its 100th year anniversary, is nationally ranked as one of the Top Ten engineering schools. USC also has internationally ranked programs in materials science, marine biology, computational biology, structural biology, geology and earth sciences, aerospace, medicine, pharmaceutical science and dentistry. Carrying on a tradition of interdisciplinary research, the university established an innovative shared instrumentation facility in 1983 to provide access to electron microscopes and related equipment for research and training across the university. This facility has grown to include multiple high resolution microscopy instruments that draw users from different disciplines on campus and throughout the region. In concert with JEOL, USC is poised to rededicate its core laboratories to meet the demands of emerging research fields with higher resolution state-of-the-art equipment and performance across a wide array of applications.
USC’s Health Science Campus to Add Three Additional JEOL Microscopes
USC’s Health Science Campus - home to the prestigious NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, nationally ranked medical departments of Ophthamology, Orthopedics, and Neurosurgery, and highly regarded Schools of Pharmaceutical Science and Dentistry – will be adding three new JEOL electron microscopes. As part of the Provost’s Biomedical Nanoscience Initiative, USC will purchase two JEOL instruments this month for the expansion of a second core laboratory at their Doheny Vision Research Center in USC’s Health Science Campus. A JEM-2100 LaB6 Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and a JSM-6390LV SEM will be installed in the lab as a multidisciplinary microscope for the USC research community and partners. In addition, a JEM-1400 TEM was purchased by the USC’s Zilkha Neurosciences Center for the Medical School to be used for cryo applications.