MRI: Acquisition of SEM and EDX Facility

蒙大拿理工大学将获得一个新的扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和附加的能量色散X射线显微分析（EDX）系统。该系统由一个可变压力扫描电镜（LEO 1430 VP）和一个数字X射线探测器与PGT-SPIRIT EDX系统。这两个单位都可以在运行Windows 2000的个人电脑上操作。SEM基本上是自动的，便于经验不足的操作员使用。EDX系统也将更容易使用。SEM将在低加速电压和允许观察湿样品的室压力下具有优异的成像性能。因此，生物科学教师、研究生和本科生将拥有一个几乎可以满足任何样品SEM观察需求的系统。因此，一个重要的女性教师和学生群体将拥有目前不可能的SEM/EDX访问。除了冶金/材料部门，其他部门，如地质，环境工程，化学和健康，安全和工业卫生也将同样受益。虽然新的SEM/EDX设施将为本科生培训打开大门，但该系统的主要作用将是促进教师和研究生的持续研究。许多教师和研究生的研究是环境导向的，因为巴特是全国最大的超级基金网站的位置。在其他部门的教师研究人员和他们的研究生同样发现有必要使用MSU SEM/EDX设施。许多系的本科生都需要提出并完成毕业论文研究项目，新的SEM/EDX设备将吸引来自校园各地感兴趣的本科生。新的SEM/EDX系统将连接到校园计算机网络，以便在需要时进行远程诊断故障排除。网络连接还将允许远程访问SEM/EDX。当这是成功地建立它将允许本科类的经验相对直接的SEM/EDX的应用到他们的领域。然后，它将扩展到远程教育计划，其中涉及36个部落学院，从而允许访问美洲原住民。在未来的SEM/EDX设施将成为所需的基础设施的一部分，该学院在蒙大拿州NSF-EPSCOR计划中发挥积极作用，其中两个目标领域是纳米技术和自我复制的生物结构。

Montana Tech will acquire a new scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an attached energy-dispersive x-ray microanalysis (EDX) system. The system consists of a variable pressure SEM (LEO 1430 VP) and a digital x-ray detector with a PGT-SPIRIT EDX system. Both units operate from PCs running Windows 2000. The SEM is essentially automatic, facilitating usage by inexperienced operators. The EDX system also will be far easier to use. The SEM will have excellent imaging performance at low accelerating voltage and at chamber pressures that permit observation of wet specimens. Hence the biosciences faculty, graduate and undergraduate students will have a system that will meet almost any need for SEM viewing of specimens.In consequence a significant female faculty and student body will have SEM/EDX access not presently possible. Besides the metallurgy/materials department other departments such as geology, environmental engineering, chemistry and health, safety and industrial hygiene will similarly benefit.Although a new SEM/EDX facility will open doors for undergraduate training, the major role of the system will be to facilitate the ongoing research of faculty and graduate students. Much faculty and graduate student research is environmentally oriented since Butte is the location of the country's largest Superfund site.In other departments faculty researchers and their graduate students have similarly found it necessary to use the MSU SEM/EDX facility. Undergraduate students in many departments are required to propose and carry out a senior thesis research project and a new SEM/EDX facility will attract interested undergraduates from all over campus.The new SEM/EDX system will be connected to the campus computer network permitting remote diagnostic troubleshooting when needed. Network connection will also allow for remote on-campus access to the SEM/EDX. When this is successfully established it will permit undergraduate classes to experience relatively directly the applications of SEM/EDX to their field. It will then be extended to the Distance Learning program, which deals with 36 tribal colleges thereby allowing access to Native Americans.In the future the SEM/EDX facility would become part of the infrastructure needed for the college to play an active role in the Montana NSF-EPSCOR program, two target areas of which are nanotechnology and self-replicating biological structures.