This past October, CO-LABS was proud to convene more than 200 fellow champions of science at Colorado’s premier scientific research recognition event. Researchers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, technology experts, STEM educators and government officials mingled and celebrated the exceptional and groundbreaking work of scientists and engineers from Colorado’s federally-funded research labs! The 2017 Governor’s Award was the ninth annual event to honor Colorado’s top scientist and engineers for project that have had a significant impact on society. During the event, Colorado State University Analytical Specialist Roy Geiss, Ph.D., and his research team, were presented with a 2017 Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research.

Their research, A New Form of Microscopy: Seeing More with a Scanning Electron Microscope, was recognized for the invention and development of the transmission Electron Backscatter Diffraction measurement technique (t-EBSD). This form of microscopy improves the ability of scanning electron microscope (SEM) to measure the atomic structure of crystalline materials by roughly 10-fold, and makes available on the SEM a higher quality form of material structural analysis that previously required access to transmission electron microscope (TEM), which is expensive and uncommon in the relevant materials laboratories. SEMs are used in the analysis of fracture surfaces for determining root causes of failure, and characterization of compositional variations at the micrometer scale occurring from processing; they are used in the development of advanced nanoelectronic devices that will power future computers and smart phones.

Along with Geiss, the research team included lead investigator Robert Keller, Ph.D., of the Nanoscale Reliability Group from NIST, and Katherine Rice, Ph.D, an application scientist with CAMECA.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-LWochMyo&w=450&h=300]