The MicroChuck blog is my own creation. The MicroChuck blog will reflect my own personal views, ideas and even prejudices. A resume or c.v. does not really tell the whole story. But the important thing is that over my own professional career I have used microscopy extensively, first as a graduate student while working on my Ph. D. at what was then Case Institute of Technology, then as an industrial researcher at the DuPont Experimental Station Laboratory in Wilmington, DE, and eventually as an entrepreneur when I founded Structure Probe, Inc. in 1970. I have seen the world undergo enormous change during that time frame. I can remember photocopying my undergraduate thesis on one of the first Xerox 914 copiers ever delivered at the University of Illinois in 1963. This was a massive improvement over the use of carbon paper and “onion skins”.

I can remember the excitement when I purchased our first Texas Instruments handheld calculator which was a massive improvement over a large “calculating machine”.

I can remember sending the first microscopy results via an early version of a FAX machine using telephone modems and that was a massive improvement over sending the results by overnight courier.

But perhaps more important is that I learned electron microscopy at a time when we did not have the need to identify whether we were talking about “transmission” or “scanning”. These were the old days when only TEMs existed.

I have witnessed the rise and fall of electron microscopy “Hall of Fame” companies such as RCA, the first firm to commercialize a transmission electron microscope. I have seen the rise and then fading into the shadows after being acquired of firms such as ETEC, Kevex, AMRAY, Ortec (EDS business), just to name a few. I think there are some lessons to be learned for the future. We don’t hear much talk of such lessons being used to perhaps keep such a fate from befalling other firms but when a firm disappears, it is a loss for hundred if not thousands of their customers who no longer have access to technical support.

The viewers will decide whether what I write is worth reading. They are the ones who will decide whether the creation of this blog is for my own vanity and self-esteem or if it truly contains information of value to anyone working in microscopy or contemplating their entry into the microscopy work place.