Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis CMCA | 2012 – 2013 Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis The University of Western Australia M010, 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 Tel: +61 8 6488 2770 Fax: +61 8 6488 1087 COVER IMAGE / PROPELLER SEED IMAGED USING THE Email: [email protected] XRM. ACQUIRED BY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JEREMY cmca.uwa.edu.au SHAW AT CMCA CRICOS Provider Code: 00126G UniPrint 114989 IMAGE / X-RAY MAP OF CA IN GARNET ACQUIRED AT ON From the Director Feature Story A JEOL 8530L HYPERPROBE AT CMCA BY DR MALCOLM ROBERTS. p1 p6 Affiliations Research Highlights p2 p8 IMAGE / X-RAY MAP OF AL DISTRIBUTION IN A CHONDRITIC METEORITE ACQUIRED BY M ROBERTS ON Techniques Biological and A JEOL 8530F HYPERPROBE. SAMPLE FROM G BENEDIX p4 Biomedical Sciences (CURTIN UNIVERSITY). p9 We will endure because it is From increasingly recognised that specialist facilities require specialists to run the Director them and that cost effectiveness requires sharing amongst the largest Although not always evident, possible research community. universities are surprisingly turbulent Go8 universities, in particular, are places. Restructuring and reinvention continuing to consolidate and are an ongoing part of the fabric – so organise their infrastructure to it is rare for organisations within it improve its standard and improve IMAGE / CMCA DIRECTOR – WINTHROP to last for 50 years. 2013 was the access – and the NCRIS scheme PROFESSOR DAVID SAMPSON CMCA’s 50th anniversary year, a interconnects these facilities In 2013, we received $770,000 major milestone in the University’s nationally. Excellence and access from the ARC to renew our nuclear 100th year. have been embraced nationally by magnetic resonance spectroscopy the NCRIS capabilities, particularly facility, supported by academic The Centre’s first instrument was by the Australian Microscopy & champions such as Professor George acquired in 1963 – a high‐resolution Microanalysis Research Facility and Koutsantonis. And supported by Tim transmission electron microscope; the National Imaging Facility. Both Shanahan and the UWA Energy and the JEOL JEM‐6A to be precise. subscribe to a flagship model in Minerals Institute, CMCA will be a To this day, the Centre continues which leading instrument platforms major beneficiary of a $12.4 million to make use of JEOL instruments. are provided locally and made Science and Industry Endowment Two of the Centre’s honorary staff available nationally. Around the Fund grant to create the Advanced members, John Kuo and former world, many groups are now looking Resource Characterisation Facility, Director Andrew Johnson, joined the to emulate how Australian science a joint initiative of the CSIRO, Curtin CMCA in 1978 and 1983, respectively infrastructure is organised, notably University and UWA, and forming a – it seems longevity is a characteristic the European Union’s Eurobioimaging cornerstone of the National Resource in the Characterisation field. So why consortium that includes microscopy Sciences Precinct currently being have we endured, and will we last the and preclinical and medical imaging. established in WA. CMCA will add next 50 years? a new NanoSIMS50L to its existing We will endure because the CMCA’s AMMRF Flagship Ion Probe Facility We have endured because a core staff are some of the most committed – a quantum leap in its capacity to facility providing leading instruments members of the University community support resource geosciences in WA, and run well by experts has always – people who love what they do, and extending its global leadership in represented an exceptional value who want to share their skills, and this field. proposition: the capacity to perform who won’t settle for second best. research at an international level of People who approach the task of As we go to press, the Federal excellence – the competitive edge. helping researchers produce their Government has shown its faith and As a University, we are indebted to best science with honesty, integrity belief in research infrastructure by the succession of CMCA Directors and rigour. These values and their continuing to support NCRIS in the who believed in this and strived passion are what has led to CMCA 2014 Federal Budget. As CMCA to grow its capacity, and to the contributing to more than 207 papers embarks upon its next 50 years, it will executive decision makers who published in 2013, including in some seek to repay that faith by delivering supported them. of the world’s top journals, such more great outcomes to the as Nature. research community. Earth and Research Training, Industry and Impact Centre Highlights Conferences Environmental Teaching and Usage p17 p21 and Visits Sciences p16 p30 p12 Research Highlights Staff p18 p26 Journal Papers Physical Sciences p32 p14 The University of Western Australia | 01 Affiliations The CMCA is a focus for Western Australian microscopy and microanalysis Centre for Microscopy Australian Microscopy activities across Western (WACM) and Microanalysis Australia and, through strong Together The University of Research Facility links and collaborations, Western Australia, Murdoch (AMMRF) has both a national and University, Curtin University, Established under the international reputation. and Edith Cowan University Commonwealth Government’s form the Western Australian National Collaborative Established in 1963 as a Centre for Microscopy Research Infrastructure science infrastructure facility (WACM). These four publicly Strategy (NCRIS), AMMRF within The University of funded universities have is Australia’s peak research Western Australia to support a very strong and long facility for the characterisation research activity, the Centre collaborative history in regard of materials through advanced has a long and distinguished to electron microscopy and microscopy and microanalysis. record of collaboration with related facilities, which is The AMMRF facilitates access researchers, industry and presently defined by the for all Australian researchers government agencies in 2010-2014 Memorandum to world-class equipment, the provision of research of Understanding (MoU). instrumentation and expertise expertise and technology. This agreement between through a national grid of the partner institutions sees nodes with varying microscopy Its world-class facilities, with CMCA acting as the hub capabilities and an array of a replacement cost of $50M, for microscopy activities in flagship instrument platforms at comprise an extensive range the State, and strong cross- the international cutting edge. of microscopy, microanalysis institutional support for and imaging instruments infrastructure acquisition and The CMCA is the West across six sites. management. The basis of Australian node of the AMMRF the WACM MoU is that major and features the flagship ion capital infrastructure must probe capabilities, which be shared to achieve the consist of the NanoSIMS50 most cost-efficient utilisation. and IMS 1280. Each of these Under the terms of the MoU, instruments is unique to the researchers from all of the Southern Hemisphere. partner universities can access the grouped facilities of WACM The CMCA also collaborates without discrimination. with the John de Laeter Centre, which enjoys linked laboratory status in the AMMRF, in the management and operation of Western Australia’s ion probe facilities. IMAGE / X-RAY MAP OF AL DISTRIBUTION IN A CHONDRITIC METEORITE ACQUIRED BY MALCOLM ROBERTS ON A JEOL 8530F HYPERPROBE. SAMPLE FROM G BENEDIX (CURTIN UNIVERSITY) 02 | cmca.uwa.edu.au National Imaging Facility (NIF) Established under NCRIS and expanded under the Commonwealth Government’s National Resource Education Investment Fund Sciences Precinct (EIF), the National Imaging The National Resource Facility provides state-of-the-art Sciences Precinct (NRSP) imaging capability of animals, is a collaboration between plants and materials for the CSIRO, Curtin University and Australian research community. The University of Western Australian National Australia (UWA) to connect In 2009, CMCA became the Fabrication Facility the world’s best researchers Western Australian node of the (ANFF) with industry and government facility, the first organisation to Established under NCRIS, the to tackle some of the most host two NCRIS capabilities. Australian National Fabrication complex challenges facing the The facility features leading- Facility (ANFF) provides resources industry. The Federal edge imaging capabilities for researchers and industry with Minister for Industry, the Hon Western Australia including in access to state-of-the-art Ian Macfarlane MP, officially vivo micro-CT, multispectral fabrication facilities. launched the National Resource imaging, and X-ray microscopy, Sciences Precinct on Tuesday 8 as well as the flagship 30cm The capability provided April, 2014. bore 9.4 T MRI located at the by ANFF enables users to QEII Medical centre. process hard materials (metals, CMCA’s role within the NRSP composites and ceramics) and will be to help establish soft materials (polymers and the Advanced Resources polymer-biological moieties) and Characterisation Facility transform these into structures (ARCF). Funded by CSIRO’s AuScope that have application in sensors, Science and Industry medical devices, nanophotonics Endowment Fund (SIEF), the AuScope is a characterisation and nanoelectronics. ARCF will install and operate capability funded through the state-of-the-art analytical National Collaborative Research The CMCA houses the instrumentation