The Black Sheep Pub
247 S. 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
6:00pm
Erich StachMaterials Science & Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
“Understanding the Structure of Materials Atom By Atom”
Every material is composed of building blocks of atoms: the arrangement in space and the chemical bonds that hold them together are what give materials their specific properties. I will talk about how we use a special type of microscope – a transmission electron microscope – to take pictures of atoms, and to understand the chemical bonds that hold them together. These microscopes are very fascinating instruments (and very expensive and sensitive too), so I will describe how they work, the types of sophisticated environments they need and how at Penn we are installing 3 absolutely world-class instruments at the Singh Nanotechnology Center to advance our understanding of a broad range of man-made and biologically engineered systems.