Pomona College and Harvey Mudd College receive $546,273 grant

Pomona College and Harvey Mudd College received a $546,273 National Science Foundation grant for a new field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), according to a Pomona College news release on Oct. 12. 

The microscope can image analyze minerals, cells, fibers, new materials and particles at size scales ranging from inches to nanometers, corresponding to magnifications from 10 times to one million times according to the news release.

The microscope is significantly better than any traditional optical microscope and will be available to students and faculty throughout the Claremont Colleges, according to the release.

The new microscope will be installed on the Pomona campus before the end of the spring semester, according to the release.

"Students will spend much more of their time collecting data than setting up the instrument," said Pomona College physics professor David Tanenbaum who led the collaborative grant proposal in a news release.