EMAS 2018
14th Regional Workshop on
The Edge of New EM and Microanalysis Technology

12th - 15th May 2024
Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Introduction to SEM,  Ivo Kuběna (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics of Materials, Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Introduction to TEM,  Mariana Klementová  (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, Prague, Czech Republic)  doc

Introduction to FIB-SEMs,  Michal Urbánek  (Brno University of Technology, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Overview of microanalytical techniques,  Ondřej Man  (Brno University of Technology, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Nano Research Infrastructure, Structural Analysis Laboratory, Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Sample preparation for SEM, microanalysis and EBSD,  Grzegorz Cios  (AGH - University of Science and Technology, Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology, Krakow, Poland)  doc

In-situ experiments in SEM/TEM - overview,  Miroslav Kolíbal  (Brno University of Technology, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Seamless 4D-STEM workflows for the characterisation of materials and nanoscale devices,  Daniel Němeček  (TESCAN Group a.s., Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Multi beam SEM (mSEM): Extreme large 2D and 3D nanoscale application,  Antonio Casares  (Carl Zeiss AG, Oberkochen, Germany)  doc

Accelerating microanalysis in SEM using the backscattered electron and X ray (BEX) technique,  Philippe T. Pinard  (Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis Ltd., High Wycombe, Great Britain)  doc

Latest development on direct‐detect EBSD cameras and spherical indexing,  René de Kloe  (Ametek BV, EDAX/Gatan Business Unit, Tilburg, The Netherlands)  doc

New developments in detecting low-energy X-rays using SXES,  Georg Raggl  (JEOL (Germany) GmbH, Freising, Germany)  doc

SEM-XRF: Full range EDS data on large and irregular samples,  Andrew Menzies  (Bruker Nano GmbH, Analytics Division, Berlin, Germany)  doc

LVEM: contrast-enhancing technology for applications from 0D to 3D materials,  Jaromír Bačovský  (Delong Instruments a.s., Brno, Czech Republic)  doc

Application of EM in steel research,  Šárka Mikmeková  (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Scientific Instruments, Brno, Czech Republic) doc

Application of EM in mineralogy/geology,  Iris Buisman  (University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge, Great Britain)  doc

Correlative and multi-scale analyses of advanced materials,  Bartlomiej (Bart) Winiarski  (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Brno, Czech Republic & The Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, Manchester, Great Britain)  doc

4D-STEM powder diffraction in SEM,  Miroslav Šlouf  (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague, Czech Republic)  doc

EMAS 2018
13th Regional Workshop on
Microbeam Analysis in the Earth Sciences

4th - 7th September 2018
University of Bristol, Wills Hall, Bristol, Great Britain

Macro-micro-nanoscale SEM/EDS of earth and planetary materials, Tobias Salge (Natural History Museum, Core Research Laboratories, London, Great Britain)  doc

The application of SEM imaging techniques to the study of rare fossils, Patrick J. ORR (University College Dublin, School of Earth Sciences, Dublin, Ireland)  doc

SEM element mapping: strengths, limitations and applications to petrography of volcanic rocks, Duncan MUIR (University College of Wales, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff, Great Britain)  doc

Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) in the Earth Sciences, Richard D. WALSHAW (University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds Great Britain)  doc

Analysing silicate melt inclusions, Ery C. HUGHES (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Trace element analysis of extraterrestrial olivine, Timothy GREGORY (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain) doc

Transmission electron microscopy: mineralogy at the nanoscale, Martin R. LEE (University of Glasgow, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, Glasgow, Great Britain)  doc

Cathodoluminescence in SEM and EPMA – Applications in geology and material sciences, B. Matat JABLON (University of Strathclyde, Department of Physics, Semiconductor Spectroscopy & Devices, Glasgow, Great Britain)  doc

High-angular resolution electron backscatter diffraction as a new tool for mapping lattice distortion in geological materials, David WALLIS (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

Isotopic imaging of minerals with NanoSIMS, Matt KILBURN (University of Western Australia, Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), Crawley, WA, Australia)  doc

SIMS of synthetic and biological carbonates, Nicola ALLISON (University of St. Andrews, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, St. Andrews, Great Britain)  doc

Application of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to the study of volatiles in melt inclusions, Cees‑Jan DE HOOG (University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, Edinburgh, Great Britain)  doc

Laser ablation ICP-MS – From craters to calculations, Jay THOMPSON (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

Analysis of sulphur concentrations and redox state in silicate glasses, Duane SMYTHE (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

Detecting diagenesis: ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analysis of archaeological bioapatites by LA MC ICPMS to assess diagenetic uptake of Sr in enamel, Jamie LEWIS (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Synchrotron µ-X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the Earth Sciences, Tina GERAKI (Diamond Light Source Ltd., Didcot, Great Britain)  doc

Determining the redox state of iron in silicate glasses using XANES, Andrew MATZEN (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

X-ray tomography analysis and applications of µ-CT techniques for 3D visualisation in palaeobiology, Tom G. DAVIES (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Chemical and ultrastructural characterisation of pigmented soft tissues in fossil vertebrates and insects, Maria MCNAMARA (University College Cork, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Cork, Ireland)  doc

The use of Raman and micro-ATR (FTIR) spectroscopies to measure volatile species in silicate glasses, Richard BROOKER (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Atom probe tomography: providing new insights into geological materials, James DOUGLAS (University of Oxford, Department of Materials, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

Preparation of Earth Science materials for microbeam analysis, Jon WADE (University of Oxford, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Great Britain)  doc

A forward look in applications of high-spatial resolution LA-ICP-MS U Th Pb geochronology, Matthew HORSTWOOD (British Geological Survey, Geochronology and Tracers Facility, Keyworth, Great Britain)  doc

New frontiers in isotope ratio measurement using collision cell, multi collector plasma mass spectrometry, Tim ELLIOTT (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Quantitative chemical analysis of diamond anvil cell experiments and other tiny samples, Eleonor JENNINGS (University of Bayreuth, Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Bayreuth, Germany)  doc

High spatial resolution analysis of chemical zoning in volcanic crystals, Jon BLUNDY (University of Bristol, School of Earth Sciences, Bristol, Great Britain)  doc

Bastin PhD Thesis Award

EMAS and Thermo Fisher Scientific are proud to announce the Bastin PhD Thesis Award to promote and reward the interest in microbeam analysis and related techniques by young people in the early stages of a scientific or technical career. This award, created officially in 2019, replaces the EMAS Thesis Award.

This award is named after Giel (Guillaume) F. Bastin (1944 - 2015) to honour his tremendous work on developing quantitative capabilities of ultra-light elements on electron microprobes, and for being one of the founding fathers of the European Microbeam Analysis Society (EMAS), which he presided from 2001 to 2005. An obituary published in the EMAS News 78 (March 2015) is reproduced below. The Bastin Fund used for this award is financially supported by Thermo Fisher Scientific, yet the scientific works are exclusively and independently evaluated by an ad-hoc committee from the EMAS board and expert co-opted members of the EMAS community.

The Bastin PhD Thesis award is given every two years to an author of a PhD-thesis in the field of electron microscopy related microanalysis, specifically EDS, WDS, EBSD and CL. Submissions are receivable until 2 years after graduation. The next call will open in July 2025. The next submission deadline is June 30th, 2026, for PhD-degrees awarded after September 1st, 2024. A short-list of exceptional submissions will go forward for a final decision. All non short-listed applicants will be notified by end of 2026.

The winning applicant will receive three years complimentary EMAS regular membership and a € 2,500 cash prize*. Moreover, the Bastin Fund will cover all reasonable travel and hotel costs, and workshop registration of the award winner, up to an amount of about € 1,000, for attending the next EMAS European Workshop where he/she should give a presentation in the Early Career Scientists’ Session. Please note there is no alternative prize to the EMAS Workshop attendance. All short-listed candidates will be offered an EMAS ECS bursary to attend the next European workshop also including a talk in the ECS session.

To qualify for the award, the candidate must send to the EMAS Secretary the following:

• A 10- to 15-page summary in English.
• A pre-recorded 15-minute MPEG4-format presentation (in English) of the work.
• A short CV, including a listing of the conferences attended and the papers published.
• Full PhD-thesis in PDF-format.
• A letter of the supervisor is NOT required.
• The applicant should be a member of EMAS in good standing at the time of application. A verification will be made when the application is received.
• The applicant should be available for an online (ZOOM platform) question and answer session on Friday January 16th, 2026 between 1500 and 1700 CET.

Next call July 2025. Next deadline for submission: 11:59pm (CET) Tuesday June 30th, 2026. * in exceptional circumstances the prize might be shared between multiple winners.

Obituary of Giel (Guillaume) F. Bastin (1944-2015)

Giel Bastin was born in Heerlen, a city in the southeast part of the Netherlands, in 1944. After secondary school he moved to Eindhoven to study Physical Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe). Apparently, Giel and the TUe were a good match, as he remained at the TUe for his PhD, and after that continued working in a staff position for the rest of his working life.

His prime research field was solid state chemistry: the investigation of diffusion behaviour of solids and research in and discovery of binary and ternary phase diagrams. In this period he first became acquainted with the electron probe microanalyser (EPMA). Starting off as regular user, Giel became more and more interested in the exact quantification procedures used in EPMA. This was triggered by the needs of the research in his department, where the focus shifted towards technical ceramics, which generally include ultra-light elements, and the availability of new synthetic diffracting crystals for his EPMA, allowing the accurate detection of these ultra-light elements.

When he realised that classic quantification procedures were unable to cope with X rays from the ultra-light elements, he embarked on a mission to develop his own quantification procedures. But then he faced the task of verifying the general applicability of his models, and worked on his prime opus: to build a huge database with as many EPMA measurements of as many elements as possible and a wide range of measuring condition to allow a rigorous test of any quantification model. In this task he received tremendous support from Hans Heijligers, his stoic EPMA operator, who would spend many months and years acquiring the EPMA data under Giel’s supervision. Based on all these measurements, Giel published several versions of his quantification model, which he named PROZA, and these were indeed a widely acclaimed improvement over other available EPMA quantification routines.

When Giel realised that the quantification models were now actually more accurate than the EPMA measurements themselves, Giel moved on to extend his models to thin-film and multilayer analysis. And in the process of developing these routines he kept fine-tuning the standard EPMA quantification routines. As a result, the scientific community knows Giel Bastin for both his achievements in developing the tools for accurate ultra-light element analysis and for his routines for thin-film analysis.

In his personal life, Giel married his first wife Jannie Koster at the age of 21 when he was still a PhD student. A very happy marriage, blessed with 2 sons and 1 daughter, which ended abruptly 23 years later when Jannie developed a fatal illness. Several years later he was fortunate to find new happiness with Marita Langeslag, with whom he moved back to his birthplace, Heerlen, after his retirement from the TUe.

Hiss loss is particularly hard felt by EMAS being one of the founding fathers of the Society: Having attended the American MAS meetings, he saw great benefits in developing a similar society on this side of the Atlantic. In 2001 he agreed to take on the role of President of the Society, a post he held for the next 4 years. In recognition of his contributions to the Society he was elected an Honorary Member in 2005 at the EMAS Workshop in Florence.

Those who knew Giel personally will forever remember his calm and deliberate nature, and his critical approach to all and everything. For example, if measurement results were too close to the predicted values, he would send the scientist back to repeat the measurements. While working with Giel was quite a blessing, traveling with Giel was often a nightmare. When traveling from his holiday address in France to an EMSA meeting in the USA, he ended up with 48 hours delay because of technical problems with the aircraft in France, and bad weather in the USA. Consequently, he did not attend the award ceremony, at which he was to receive the prestigious Birks Award from MAS. There was another occasion on a flight from Luton (UK) back to the Netherlands, where the pilot announced halfway over the North Sea that the flight would have to turn back to Luton as they had forgotten to load all the passengers’ luggage.

In August 2014 Giel Bastin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer; a killer disease that is generally lethal as it tends to spread before it can be diagnosed. Giel is survived by his second wife, three children and eight grandchildren. His funeral took place on Saturday 31 January 2015, a solemn event that was well attended, including a good delegation of friends from his long TUe period.

Looking back at his life, Giel never considered the quantification procedures that he had developed his main legacy to the scientific community. According to Giel, models and equations are transient things, which inevitably sooner or later become obsolete when better models are developed. But his huge database of very accurate measurements will always resist the teeth of time, and will be of great value to the microanalysis community for eternity.

The microanalysis community in general and EMAS in particular has lost a great scientist, mentor and friend.

Hans Dijkstra, February 2015

EMAS News 78, March 2015

Course Tutors: Silvia Richter (DE), Philippe Pinard (DE), Xavier Llovet (ES), Raynald Gauvin (CAN)

Hostsed by Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, RWTH Aachen University, June 2014

Programme of Workshop (pdf download)