A team of UMass faculty members led by PSE Profs. Ribbe and Hoagland has been awarded an NSF-MRI grant for the purchase of a Variable-Pressure High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope (VP-HRSEM) with capabilities currently unavailable in the UMass Electron Microscopy Center.  The VP-HRSEM features will include: (i) an in-chamber ultra-microtome for serial block face imaging with 3D reconstruction, (ii) a cryo-stage reaching -150C, (iii) an energy-disperse x-ray spectrometer for composition mapping, and (iv) a gas-injection option that allows for imaging at low but finite pressure and imaging of insulating specimens through charge neutralization.  The instrument, expected to serve both materials and life science researchers, will be installed  in the Center starting about spring 2020.