The Microscopy Society of America (MSA), founded in 1942 as The Electron Microscope Society of America, is a non-profit organization that provides microanalytical facilities for studies within the sciences. Currently, there are approximately 3000 members. The society holds an annual meeting, which is usually held in the beginning of August. It has 30 local affiliates across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The society has a program for examining and certifying technologists of

electron microscopes An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

. The organization produces two journals: Microscopy Today, and Microscopy and Microanalysis. As of 2024, the President is Jay Potts.

History

A meeting of electron microscopists took place in November 1942 at the Sherman House Hotel in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. It was organized by G. L. Clark of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. At this meeting the society was founded as the Electron Microscope Society of America (EMSA). For the 1949 meeting, the EMSA invited representatives from European microscopy societies, which may have been a catalyzing event for the creation of an international microscopy society: the International Federation of Societies for Electron Microscopy (IFSEM), which the EMSA later joined, and would eventually hold joint meetings with IFSEM; the first of these joint meetings would the 9th International Congress of Electron Microscopy in 1978. The name of the society was changed in 1964 to the Electron Microscopy Society of America to "reflect the cross-discipline nature of microscopy applications." In 1993, the name was changed to the current one: the Microscopy Society of America to "reflect the increasing diversity of microscopy and microanalysis techniques and their applications represented at the annual Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M) meeting and in MSA publications."

Structure

The MSA has an MSA Executive Council made up of five individuals: the president, president-elect, past president, treasurer and secretary. Those elected president serve three-year terms, where they have different roles during each year. During the first year they act as the president-elect, during the second year they act as the president, and during the final year they act as the past president. The treasurer serves a five-year term, and the secretary serves a two-year term. Additionally, there is an MSA Council made up of seven individuals each elected to two-year terms.

Publications

''Microscopy Today'' and ''Microscopy and Microanalysis'' both release six times a year alternating with each other. The former is released in odd months (January, March etc.), while the latter is released in even months (February, April etc.). Both are now published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, but were published by the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

prior to 2023.

Microscopy Today

''Microscopy Today'' is a

trade magazine A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular tradesman, trade or industry. The collective term ...

intended to provide information to microscopists working in all fields, with coverage including light microscopy, microanalytical methods and electron microscopy. The current editor-in-chief is Dr. Robert L. Price. It was published by

until Volume 31, where publishing was taken over by

Microscopy and Microanalysis

Microscopy Listserver

The Microscopy Listserver is a network based discussion forum giving members of the scientific community a centralized Internet address to which questions/comments/answers in the various fields of Microscopy or Microanalysis can be rapidly distributed to a list of (subscribed) individuals by electronic mail. There are in excess of 3000 subscribers to the Microscopy Listserver from over 40 countries on 6 continents, who participate in this system on a daily basis. Messages are posted and circulated daily on a variety of topics. The Listserver was founded by Nestor J. Zaluzec who continues to host and operate the service for the scientific community, the Listserver is co-sponsored in part by the ''Microscopy Society of America''. This Listserver has been in operation since 1993 and maintains a searchable archive of all posted Email questions, comments, and responses. Every two months, selected contributions on the Microscopy Listserver are published in the archives of Microscopy-Today For the purposes of this forum, Microscopy or Microanalysis is considered to include all techniques which employ a probe such as: photons (including x-rays), electrons, ions, mechanical and/or electromagnetic radiation to form a representation or characterization of the microstructure (internal or external) of any material in either physical and/or life sciences applications. Some of the more common techniques which are associated with this field include the following: * optical microscopy * x-ray microscopy *

scanning electron microscopy A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that ...

transmission electron microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

atomic force microscopy Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the opti ...

scanning tunneling microscopy A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of scanning probe microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in ...

* scanning ion microscopy * analytical electron microscopy * high resolution electron microscopy* * intermediate/high voltage electron microscopy *

electron microprobe An electron microprobe (EMP), also known as an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) or electron micro probe analyzer (EMPA), is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. I ...

analyzers * x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy *

electron energy loss spectroscopy Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is a form of electron microscopy in which a material is exposed to a beam of electrons with a known, narrow range of kinetic energies. Some of the electrons will undergo inelastic scattering, which mea ...

* ....... There are no charges for usage of the forum, except for the request that one actively participates in any discussion to which you have a question, comment and/or contribution. Unsolicited commercial advertising messages are prohibited, however, brief announcements of educational/training courses are permitted on a strictly limited basis. In compliance with US Public Law 108-187 (CANSPAM Act) only subscribers and/or posters receive copies of posting to the Listserver via Email. Non-subscribers are allowed to browse the archives.

Notable people

* Thomas F. Anderson, biophysical chemist and geneticist; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1955. * M. Grace Burke, materials scientist; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2005. * C. Barry Carter, professor of material science; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 1997. * Thomas Eugene Everhart, educator and physicist; elected President of the Electron Microscopy Society of America in 1977. * Robert Glaeser,

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

; elected President of the Electron Microscopy Society of America in 1986. *

Ernest Lenard Hall Ernest Lenard (Ernie) Hall, PhD, PE, is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science in the School of Dynamic Systems in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati. He was also the Paul E. ...

, university professor; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2013. *

David Harker David Harker (October 19, 1906 – February 27, 1991) was an American medical researcher who according to ''The New York Times'' was "a pioneer in the use of X-rays to decipher the structure of critical substances in the life process of cells". ...

, medical researcher; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1946. *

Étienne de Harven Etienne de Harven (1928-2019) was a Belgian-born pathologist and electron microscopist. Born in Brussels, he did most of his work in New York City, Paris and Toronto. He did pioneering research on viruses, mostly related to murine leukemia. He ...

, pathologist and electron microscopist; elected President of the Electron Microscopy Society of America in 1976. *

James Hillier James Hillier, (August 22, 1915 – January 15, 2007) was a Canadian- American scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938. Biography ...

, scientist and inventor who commercialized the first electron microscope with Albert Prebus; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1945. * Deborah F. Kelly (living), biomedical engineer and university professor; elected President of the Microscopy Society of America in 2022. * Michael A. O'Keefe, physicist; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2007. * David W. Piston, physicist; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2010. *

Keith R. Porter Keith Roberts Porter (June 11, 1912 – May 2, 1997) was a Canadian- American cell biologist. He created pioneering biology techniques and research using electron microscopy of cells. Porter also contributed to developing other experimental ce ...

, cell biologist; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1962 and 1990. * David J. Smith, experimental physicist; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2009. * Robley C. Williams, biophysicist and

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

,; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1951. *

Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff, Sr. (August 9, 1897 – November 3, 1994), or simply Ralph Wyckoff, was an American chemist and pioneer of X-ray crystallography. He also made contributions to vaccine developments against epidemic typhus and other ...

, chemist and pioneer of X-ray crystallography; elected President of the Electron Microscope Society of America in 1950. * Nestor J. Zaluzec, scientist and inventor; elected President of Microscopy Society of America in 2011.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Microscopy organizations Organizations established in 1942 Scientific societies based in the United States 1942 establishments in the United States