Patrick Mwanza – PhD candidate from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology – won the Carl Zeiss prize for the best presentation that uses microscopy to address an industry related problem; and Genevéve Marx – PhD candidate from the Centre for HRTEM (High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy) – walked away with the Wirsam Scientific award for the best paper presented by a student author in the materials division, as well as the Scientific Group prize for the most innovative microscopy technique at the conference.
The Centre for High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy is a facility for advanced electron microscopy situated at the University. The facility houses four state-of-the-art electron microscopes - including the only double aberration corrected transmission electron microscope on the African continent - as well as the enabling infrastructure for sample preparation, data processing and image simulation. Other instruments include a fully analytical TEM, a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope and an analytical high resolution scanning electron microscope.
The main aim of the Centre for HRTEM is to provide a broad community of South African scientists and students with a full range of state-of-the-art instruments and expertise for materials research.