Brno is known for its history in electron microscopy excellence and the 16th International Microscopy Conference (16MCM) has made its mark as a significant part of this history, both for Brno and TESCAN. 16MCM is the largest scientific congress held in Brno in the last 20 years and it brought many insightful meetings, mutual inspiration and the joy of scientific achievements and accolades.
During the busy conference on September 4-9, we had the opportunity to showcase our superior research results based on teamwork with well-known scientific stars from all over the world.
TESCAN contributed to the 16MCM program with presentations and workshops throughout the week. On Monday, September 5, Martin Sláma, Product Marketing Manager for Materials Science, gave a FIB-SEM workshop, “Gain the maximum throughput with artifact-free surfaces for sample characterization by using high current plasma FIB-SEM,” and Vratislav Košt’ál, Chief Product Officer, delivered a talk on TESCAN’s heritage in electron microscopy. On Thursday, September 8, Ondřej Šulák, Product Marketing Director for Life Sciences, contributed with his workshop, “Apply optimized TESCAN CRYO FIB workflows for effortless CRYO TEM lamella preparation from your biological samples.”
We were honored to be the general partner of the charity run for ParaCENTRUM Fenix. The race was held with a lot of excitement and positive energy from the start in the morning. The race involved 65 runners competing for the title of the “King of Špilberk.” Participants included conference attendees, TESCAN volunteers, representatives of ParaCENTRE and the teams of BěhejBrno and radio Krokodýl. 20 474 CZK were raised for Fenix and the winner of the run was our Tomáš Hrnčíř, Senior Systems Engineer!
One of our goals for 16MCM was to inspire collaboration between scientists from academia and the commercial sector. Jack Donoghue, Experimental Officer from the University of Manchester, gave a beautiful example of such collaboration in his inspiring lecture. Jack presented the integration of EBSD acquisition into fully automated in-situ thermomechanical testing for high temporal and spatial resolution. We are proud to be a partner with the University of Manchester and to have been included indirectly in the event programme.
TESCAN also had its hand in the poster presentations. A team of authors consisting of Jakub Javůrek, Martin Kobáň, Markéta Machálková, Stuart Searle, Louise Hughes and Samuel Zachej prepared a poster on the topic “Modern SEM allows high-throughput 2D and 3D analyses on a single platform.”
16MCM had two really significant highlights. One was a guided tour of TESCAN’s production facility, which attracted customers from all over the world, including some world-renown researchers. We gave them a tour and provided a glimpse of our new TEM!
The second highlight was a panel discussion moderated by Daniel Stach from Czech Television. Mr. Jaroslav Klíma, the founder of TESCAN and the current CEO of TESCAN ORSAY HOLDING, represented TESCAN. Together with him, top scientists joined the debate. Richard Henderson, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry; Ute Kaiser, professor at the University of Ulm, who has been working on transmission electron microscopy for a long time; Quentin Ramasse, director of the SuperSTEM laboratory at the University of Leeds; as well as partners from the Brno electron microscopy ecosystem.
During the 16th MCM we created a space brimming with energy, inspiration, and enthusiasm. A huge thank you to all the visitors, partners, the organizers, the Czechoslovak Microscopy Society and our colleagues, without whom none of this would have been possible.
