World's Most Advanced Microscope Arrives At UVic

The University of Victoria is now home to the most powerful microscope ever built.

This week, the seven-tonne, 4.5-metre tall Scanning Transmission Electron Holography Microscope (STEHM) arrived on campus and was lowered in pieces into a special room in the basement of the Bob Wright Centre, where it is now being assembled.

The STEHM is a one-of-a-kind machine built for UVic by Hitachi High Technologies Canada in Japan and is the highest-resolution microscope in the world. It will allow researchers from around the world to see things at a magnification up to 20 million times larger than the human eye can see.

“This machine will be used for thousands of different types of research by scientists from around the world, who are already lining up to use it,” says Rodney Herring, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of UVic’s Advanced Microscopy Facility.

Engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists and medical researchers will use the STEHM to better understand subatomic structures relevant to areas such as medical and environmental diagnostics, communications, computers, alternative energy and manufacturing. “This microscope will open up a hidden world, and gives UVic a research capability that no other institution has,” says Herring.

The STEHM microscope facility is supported by $9.2 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the BC Knowledge Development Fund and UVic, as well as significant in-kind support from Hitachi.

UVic-produced video

Backgrounder and photos page attached.
 

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