Coffee & Viz - Art at the Atomic Scale: probing the nature of material properties with electron microscopy

To explore the atomic scale, scientists use very large and powerful microscopes that can capture pictures of atoms. Like looking through the telescope to see the stars, these electron microscopes make it possible to see how atoms arrange themselves to form a material. In this seminar Dr. James LeBeau, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will discuss works from an exhibit aimed to translate science to the general public through an artistic expression of the arrangement of atoms in materials, as captured with the scanning transmission electron microscope. This “atom art” shows people that we can directly see atoms, and the orderly, often beautiful, way that atoms are arranged in materials. How those atoms are arranged, and the patterns they make, is key to understanding a material's properties - and how engineers can control those properties.