Data Analysis in Imaging - The journey from focussed interest group to full RMS section infocus #77 March 2025

One of the fastest growing areas within the UK microscopy community is the analysis of imaging data. This article describes the formation of the Data Analysis in Imaging (DAIM) section of the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS), formed to represent the interests of RMS members in this rapidly expanding field.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.289

The need for a cohesive community of scientific image data analysts is highlighted to develop and disseminate rapid technological advancements, and to bring together disparate fledgling communities across a range of scientific domains.

Previous initiatives tobuild such communities, such as NEUBIAS and the RMS Image Analysis Focussed Interest Group, are described, and the DAIM section is introduced, explaining its short and long-term goals to contribute to the international community of scientific image data analysts.

Return to listing

Authors

Tom Slater

Data Analysis in Imaging Section, RMS

Tom is a Lecturer in Electron Microscopy in the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University. His research primarily focuses on electron microscopy of nanoparticle catalysts, particularly understanding their three-dimensional structure and monitoring their evolution in reaction conditions. He has developed python packages for analysing nanoparticles from electron microscopy images and for elemental analysis using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

He obtained an MPhys (2011) and PhD (2015) from the University of Manchester, where his PhD was supervised by Sarah Haigh. He subsequently worked as a postdoc in the group of Phil Withers at Manchester, linking X-ray tomography to 3D electron microscopy by developing correlative workflows. From 2018 – 2022, he was an Electron Microscopy Scientist at the ePSIC facility at Diamond Light Source, before taking up his current position at Cardiff University.

Martin Jones

Data Analysis in Imaging Section, RMS

Martin is currently Deputy Head of Microscopy Prototyping in the Electron Microscopy Science Technology Platform at the Francis Crick Institute. His work focuses on developing new software and hardware tools for dealing with the deluge of data coming from modern microscopes. His background is in experimental quantum optics from the University of Sussex.

After postdoctoral research and teaching fellowships in physics, he moved to the Vascular Biology Lab led by Holger Gerhardt at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute to work on microscope development and image analysis. From there he moved to the LRI’s Electron Microscopy core facility, led by Lucy Collinson, which subsequently moved to its current home at the Francis Crick Institute.

Martin now works closely with the Crick’s Scientific Computing Science Technology Platform to work on methods for analysing large complex imaging datasets and has a strong interest in training.