MRI: Acquisition of a Transmission Electron Microscope for Research and Research Training.

托莱多大学(UT)被授予一项研究，以研究一些需要以非常高的放大倍数可视化非常精细的细节的项目。该合同将允许该大学购买具有德州大学目前无法获得的能力的透射式电子显微镜(TEM)。该显微镜将能够从许多照片中构建三维计算机图像，并使科学家能够从多个角度表征样品结构。该仪器将在电子显微镜实验室为本科生和研究生提供实践机会，学习技术并将技术应用于课堂和研究项目。新的电子显微镜将加强目前的外展计划，为初中生、高中生和社区大学的学生提供“远程控制”的科学体验。这一外展教育计划为地区学校教师提供了额外的资源，通过让学生接触实际操作的科学方法，并对研究样本进行“现场”成像，来加强对学生的教育。这些地区性的教室将通过远程控制来操控英语教学，并引导学生就科学、技术、工程、数学和医学(STEMM)教育、研究以及他们可以追求的职业机会展开对话。该显微镜还将用于德克萨斯大学企业孵化器Rocket Innovation的商业初创公司，该公司的使命之一是在学生、毕业生和教职员工中创建一种创业和创新文化。新的电子显微镜还将允许德克萨斯大学的研究人员研究近年来威胁到托莱多和俄亥俄州西北部饮用水的伊利湖细菌；这些细菌中的一种会产生一种已知对该地区居民构成危险的毒素。新的电子显微镜的获得将推动德克萨斯大学在生命科学、材料/物理科学研究和学生培训方面的多学科创新研究。新的透射电子显微镜将使许多有共同兴趣的生物学家受益，他们希望了解细胞如何发展内部结构，特别是结构如何影响细胞运动(即细丝、纤维和纤毛)，或研究细胞对毒素的反应和细胞如何死亡的过程。依赖于这种电子显微镜的生物学项目将1)彻底改变对动物受精的理解，2)提高对细胞新陈代谢、细胞运动和溶酶体生物学的理解。德克萨斯大学的一些科学家研究对开发更高效率的太阳能电池板非常重要的敏感薄膜；新的透射电子显微镜将使他们能够绘制薄膜化学成分图，并在虚拟的3维计算机投影中评估这些样品的电学性质。新的TM将提供一种研究工具，具有德克萨斯大学目前所没有的能力，它将增强德克萨斯大学的学生和研究人员探索新想法的能力。德克萨斯大学学生和教职员工进行的研究将包括新的结果，这些结果将在当地高中课堂上、当地、地区、国家科学和国际会议和研讨会上与普通公众和科学界交流，数据将发表在同行评议的期刊上。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An award is made to The University of Toledo (UT) to do research on a number of projects that require visualization of very fine detail at very high magnifications. The award will allow the University to purchase a transmission electron microscope (TEM) with capabilities that are currently unavailable at UT. The microscope will be able to construct three dimensional computer images from many photographs and enable scientists to characterize sample structure from many angles of view. The instrument will provide undergraduate and graduate students hands-on opportunities in the electron microscopy laboratory to learn techniques and apply the technology to classroom and research projects. The new TEM will strengthen a current outreach program that provides middle, high school, and students at community colleges with a "remote-controlled" science experience. This outreach educational program provides area schoolteachers with an additional resource to enhance the education of their students by exposing them to the scientific method in action with "live" imaging of research samples. The TEM will be operated by remote control from these regional classrooms and lead to conversations about science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) education, research, and career opportunities that they can pursue. The microscope will also be used by commercial start-up companies in UT's business incubator, Rocket Innovations, which among its mission goals, creates a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among students, graduates and faculty. The new TEM will also allow UT researchers to study bacteria in Lake Erie that have threatened Toledo's and Northwest Ohio's drinking water in recent years; one of these organisms produces a toxin that is a known danger to people living in the area.Acquisition of the new TEM will advance UT's innovative, multidisciplinary research in both life science and material/physical science research and student training. The new TEM will benefit many biologists that have a common interest to learn how cells develop internal structures, especially how structures effect cell motility (i.e., filaments, fibers, and cilia) or to study how cells react to toxins and the process of how cells die. The biology projects that depend on this TEM will 1) revolutionize understanding of animal fertilization and 2) enable improve understanding of cell metabolism, cell movement, and lysosomal biology. Some UT scientists study sensitive thin films that are important in developing higher efficiency solar panels; the new TEM will enable them to map thin film chemical make-up and evaluate the electrical properties of these samples in virtual 3 dimension computer projections. The new TEM will provide a research tool with abilities that are not currently available at UT and it will enhance the ability of UT students and researchers to explore new ideas. The research that UT students and faculty conduct will include novel results that will be communicated with both the general public and scientific communities in local high school classrooms, at local, regional, national scientific, and international meetings and seminars, and data will be published in peer-reviewed journals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.