Fred and Martha Hafer Scanning Electron Microscope lab is one of the flagship facilities at the university.  We have a Zeiss Gemini 300 FE-SEM mounted with an Oxford Ultim Max 100 EDS.  In the electron microscope world, these are exceptionally nice instruments - among the best in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The lab is used almost entirely by Kutztown University undergraduate college students.  My job is maintain the lab, to train every person, and to mentor/help users get good data for their research.  It's like a second job in addition to my regular job of teaching geology classes.  It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding to help people achieve their goals.

Please click here to see examples of great images taken by students in my SEM class at Kutztown University.

Unlike most samples in biology, the crystalline materials we study in geology and chemistry are made of atoms arranged in a very repetitive manner, which gives crystals different properties along different dimensions.  For example, a crystal can be blue along its long axis, and yellow along a short axis.  We use polarized light microscopes to analyzes properties of crystals alone each axis individually, and we observe how the light interacts with multiple axes at the same time. 

Please click here to see imagery from the petrographic microscopy lab. 

Binocular microscopes are the equivalent of very powerful magnifying glasses.  Bini = two and oculus = eyes looking down two tubes with magnifying lenses.  Binoc scopes like these are used mostly for helping us see what we're doing when mounting tiny samples for other microscopes or for seeing natural colors on the surfaces of tiny things.  

The Kutztown University labs I manage use Zeiss Stemi 508 binocular microscopes with Zeiss AxioCam 208 cameras (4k = 8 megapixels).

Please click here to see some imagery captured with binocular microscopes.

The geochemistry lab was originally just for analyzing the chemical properties of rocks and soils.  When we got the electron microscope, we needed a place to prepare samples, so like most things with this job, the responsibilities expanded.

Equipped with optical microscopes, high-tech SEM preparation instruments, polishing equipment, and a fume hood for mixing and reacting chemicals, this room is a busy place.

Some scientists work in Clean Rooms - special labs with lots of precautions and technologies that guard against even single grains of dust.  Clean rooms are where new computer chip materials are invented and scientists working in them wear special suits with booties so they don't track dirt in.

My other lab management responsibility is a rock cutting lab - the opposite of a clean room.  Although it's dusty and can smell of lapidary oil, it's still a place where discoveries are made, which suits me fine!

Diamond-bladed rock saws are just circular metal blades that wear their way through rocks like a continuous file, but they're an important tool for sample preparation and exploring the insides of rocks!
Please click here to see photos of the rock cutting lab.