Phil Batson's $2 million Electron Microscope Project Touted by White House as a Top National Priority

A project to build one of the most advanced electron microscopes in the world was touted Friday by the White House as one of “100 Recovery Act Projects that are Changing America.”

The Rutgers project was funded through a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation with additional funding through the university.

“With Recovery Act projects like these, we're starting to turn the page on a decade of failed economic policies and rebuild our economy on a new foundation that creates good middle class jobs for American families," said Vice President Joseph Biden, who made the annoucement Friday.

“Recovery Act projects like these are drawing billions in private capital off the sidelines to help recharge our economy,” said the vice president.

Serving as principal investigator is Research Professor Philip E. Batson, who is affiliated with the university's Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology (IAMDN) and is also a professor in the Department Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics.

According to Batson, the microscope will have many different applications - more efficient batteries, conversion of light to electricity, and chemical reactions that produce hydrogen.

“This instrument will let us look at how the atoms affect the operation of the things we make at the nanoscale,” Batson said.

Also involved with the project as co-principal investigator is Professor Frederic Cosandey, an expert in transmission electron microscopy, who has been closely involved in the acquisition, installation, and operation of several microscopes at Rutgers.  Professor Cosandey expects greatly expanded research capability from the new instrument and in working with Professor Batson to build the microscope and bring it on-line as soon as possible.

The microscope is expected to be finished by the end of 2012.

Phil Batson and Frederic Cosandey are faculty members in Materials Science and Engineering and Phil Batson also has a joint appointment in Physics.  His work is conducted in the Rutgers Institute of Advanced Materials, Devices, and Nanotechnology.