SEM

The Field Museum’s SEM Lab is part of the Museum’s Core Lab Group. This lab’s scanning electron microscope uses a focused beam of electrons to take extremely detailed, high resolution photographs of the surface of samples, including biological materials such as insects and geological samples such as meteorites. The SEM is heavily used by all four research areas within the museum for photography and chemical analysis and is frequently used by students and postdoctoral scholars in their research projects.

Julie Korsmeyer, working with Philipp Heck in our Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, has found over 1000 silicon carbide pre-solar grains separated from the Aguas Zarcas meteorite. This will all be material for her dissertation at the University of Chicago. 

In 2023, we were excited to purchase a new Hitachi SU7000 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, a Hitachi IM4000II Ion Milling System and a Leica EM Ace600 Sputter Coater. It is also equipped with an Oxford X-Max 50 EDS. 

Laboratory Manager: Stephanie Ware

Lab Advisory Committee: Rüdiger Bieler (Chair), Philipp Heck, Rick Ree, and Bill Parkinson

If you are interested in learning more about the SEM Lab please inquire with Stephanie Ware at sware@fieldmuseum.org

More information: SEM Info Page