Millennium Science Complex hosts first interdisciplinarily focused open house
Microscopy & Cytometry Facility collaborates with Materials Characterization Lab, showcasing benefits for materials researchers and life scientists, alike
View of the Millennium Science Complex courtyard. Photograph by Paul Rentschler.
The event, entitled "Exploring facilities that bridge the life and materials sciences in the Millennium Science Complex," was held to celebrate and publicize the improvements in instrumentation and research capabilities that have come with the Microscopy and Cytometry Facility's recent move to the Millennium Science Complex, and also to introduce the Materials Characterization Laboratory (MCL) to the life science research community at Penn State.
Faculty and staff from the Huck Institutes and the Materials Research Institute — including Microscopy and Cytometry Facility director Greg Ning and research technologist Ruth Nissly, as well as MCL's operations manager Josh Stapleton and electron microscopy facilities manager Trevor Clark — provided information about the technical capabilities and research applications of the two facilities, and about new technologies in microscopy and flow cytometry.
Attendees were also offered tours of the new facilities and demonstrations of the cutting-edge instrumentation — including the Carl Zeiss Cell Observer Live Cell Imaging System, Olympus FV10i Confocal and VS120 Slide Scanner systems, and the AMG EVOS all-in-one digital inverted microscope.
In addition to discussing the Microscopy and Cytometry Facility's history and future direction, Director Greg Ning stressed its "critical role" in bridging between MRI's imaging systems and research applications in the life sciences — ultimately concluding that the existence of such a facility is "very important for the Penn State life science and materials science research community."
Presenters from the Huck Institutes
- Nigel Deighton, Director of Research Instrumentation
- Greg Ning, Director, Microscopy and Cytometry Facility
- Ruth Nissly, Research Technologist, Microscopy and Cytometry Facility
Presenters from the Materials Research Institute
- Josh Stapleton, Operations Manager, Materials Characterization Laboratory
- Trevor Clark, Electron Microscopy Facilities Manager, Materials Characterization Laboratory
Vendors
- Jack Garner, Thomas Henderson (Carl Zeiss)
- Dennis Hoovler, Tim Beck (Olympus)
- Darin Fogg (Amnis Corporation)
- Donna Guarrera, Ed Boyle (JEOL)
- Mark KuKurug (BD Biosciences)
- Jennifer Sonntag (AMG)
