MRI: Acquisition of a Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope for Cal State Northridge Scanning Microscopy Lab

The purpose of the project is to acquire a high-performance scanning electron microscope (SEM) with superior imaging and analytical capability for use by geology, chemistry, physics, and biology faculty and students at California State University Northridge (CSUN), one of the largest campuses in the 23 campus California State University (CSU) system. CSUN is a federally designated Hispanic-serving public university granting Master of Science (M.S.) degrees.

The acquisition of the new SEM will distinguish CSUN within the 23-campus, non-Ph.D.-granting CSU system and will have transformative effects on faculty and student research at institutional, regional, and state levels. At the institutional level, research programs of nearly a dozen CSUN science faculty and their students will be transformed by the analytical capability of the new SEM that are made possible by the field emission source of the electrons used for imaging, and the add-on detectors that allow for structural and chemical characterization of samples.

At the state level, this caliber of field emission SEM (FE-SEM) would be unique within the CSU system, representing an elevation in the research infrastructure of M.S.-granting institutions. The Co-PIs have concrete plans to run the FE-SEM lab as a multi-user facility that supports both virtual and physical access for other CSU students and faculty.

At the regional level, the Microscopy Lab has partnered with the CSU Chancellor’s Office Research Department to formalize its status as a center and to create and grow a CSU-wide community of faculty and student users of the new microscopy facility through a series of system-wide webinars showcasing the instrument and potential research and student training uses. The FE-SEM will enhance the full participation of underrepresented people through the involvement of diverse faculty (two out of three Co-PIs are from underrepresented groups in the geosciences) and students at a M.S.-granting, Hispanic-serving institution (HSI).

As part of this project, CSUN will acquire a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) that offers nano-scale resolution and state-of-the-art analytical capabilities, including: 1) high speed electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), 2) energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis, and 3) cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging. These capabilities are essential for leading-edge research for a team at California State University Northridge (CSUN) comprising 3 geoscientist Co-PIs and 8 other faculty colleagues from geology, chemistry, biology, and physics.

Most importantly, the acquisition of the FE-SEM will revolutionize the research training of undergraduate and M.S. students who would typically need to travel to a Ph.D.-granting institution where they are granted sporadic access to instrumentation with these capabilities. The FE-SEM will be housed in the Department of Geological Sciences at CSUN, where it will be supported by the Department’s dedicated instrument technician and maintained by service contract with funding gifted annually by a private donor.

The FE-SEM will enhance the research infrastructure at a M.S.-granting HSI, which is an important step in creating access to research training for students who are unable to attend or afford an education at better-instrumented Ph.D.-granting institutions. Given that terminal geoscience M.S. degree recipients consistently outnumber Ph.D. recipients nationwide, this is critical training for a significant part of the future STEM workforce.

The FE-SEM will improve the research training of students through 1) mentored research projects, 2) coursework, 3) an innovative post-M.S. degree training program, and 4) a microscopy lecture series. The latter two items specifically promote the development of a competitive workforce and partnerships between academia and industry, respectively.

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.