8 Sep 2022

infocus #67 September 2022 X-ray Microscopy Focused Interest Group - or the X-ray FIG for Short

X-rays have played a major part in the field of microscopy for many years, indeed their role in society was more or less instantly sealed when Roentgen imaged his wife’s hand, creating that truly iconic first X-ray image.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.235

Within the Royal Microscopical Society however X-rays have, up until now, not featured prominently. True, many of our members use X-rays in some form or other as part of their work but only a select few focus their efforts solely on using X-rays to enable scientific discovery. As a result the X-ray microscopy community has been represented within the RMS via the Electron Microscopy Section Committee with a significant number of X-ray microscopy technique users scattered across other sections particularly within the Engineering and Physical Sciences community.

However over the last few years the profile of X-ray microscopy has increased significantly in part due to the increasing popularity of X-ray imaging particularly as it has become easier to collect high quality data without having to leave the home laboratory. Given this it seemed a perfect opportunity for the RMS to explore whether there is sufficient interest within the society to merit a section dedicated to X-ray microscopy and thus the X-ray Microscopy Focussed Interest Group or X-ray FIG was formed.

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