This issue showcases the winners of the second annual Microscopy Today Innovation Awards competition. These awards were established to honor innovative microscopy-related products and methods that appeared in the previous year.
The team of judges, led by Tom Kelly, looked for innovations that will make new scientific investigations possible. The ten winning innovations are selected on the basis of their importance and usefulness to the microscopy community. The entries most likely to win are those that provide better, faster, or entirely new methods of analysis by some type of microscope or microanalytical instrument.
The following innovations received 2011 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards:
Anasys Instruments nanoIR™ provides AFM-based infrared spectroscopy
Multimodal Optical Nanoprobe examines specimens with a laser in TEM
Fischione Model 2540 in situ environmental heating TEM holder
NanoMEGAS ASTAR crystal orientation and phase mapping system for TEM
Nikon N-SIM structured illumination super-resolution microscope
Electrochemical Strain Microscopy in scanning probe microscopy
Resolution Optics Desktop Digital In-Line Holographic Microscope
Semrock VersaChrome tunable thin-film bandpass filters
STAR Cryoelectronics microcalorimeter x-ray spectrometer
WITec True Surface Microscopy improves confocal Raman imaging
Descriptions of these innovations are provided in an article within this issue. Congratulations to the developers of these instruments and methods.
Details of the nomination process for the 2012 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards will be posted on the Microscopy Today website (www.microscopy-today.com) by January 1, 2012. Nomination applications will be accepted through March 1, 2012.
