For 15 years, a research centre at Nelson Mandela University has been researching and finding answers at the atomic and nanoscale.
It is the DSTI-NRF Centre for High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (CHRTEM) in the faculty of science at the Gqeberha university.
And in celebration of this milestone, a delegation from the department of science technology and innovation (DSTI) , the National Research Foundation (NRF) and NMU will join national and international scientists as well as industry and innovation leaders at the CHRTEM in mid-October for a three-day conference.
CHRTEM director, physicist Professor Jaco Olivier said the strategic importance of the unit was ever-increasing as technologies become more dependent on materials engineered at smaller length scales and with increasingly complex structures.
Almost every manufactured object, construct or technology in existence — from a power plant to a cooldrink can — has to have its properties investigated and assessed at this level.
“CHRTEM houses the only aberration-corrected Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) in Africa.
"The centre also includes other microscopy infrastructure, all equipped with unique detector technology, essential for research, analysis and development at the atomic and nanoscale.
“CHRTEM has substantial expertise across a broad range of electron microscopy, advanced quantitative imaging and materials science techniques, combining extremely sophisticated instrumentation with the scientific, technical and computational skills required to extract information from increasingly complex datasets,” Olivier said.
He said their focus was on enabling atomic-scale research and advanced materials analysis in support of the South African National System of Innovation, while simultaneously advancing scientific frontiers by continually pushing the boundaries of spatial resolution to reveal the fundamental structure of matter.
Achieving this requires the increasing integration of advanced computational methods, including AI-driven data processing and computational imaging.
"These approaches unlock new scientific opportunities and equip the next generation of researchers with specialised skills in modern data analysis and computational techniques, preparing them for the demands of an increasingly digital and data-driven scientific landscape.”
He said CHRTEM was also a platform through which researchers in SA partnered in international science.
Collaborations include the University of Oxford, Max Planck Institutes, Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ohio State University and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), among many others, as well as partners across the Global South.
The mid-October delegation will experience the CHRTEM and all its capabilities and instruments, including the two new scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) that arrived in May this year from JEOL in Japan.
“The new instruments offer greater stability, faster acquisition, substantially stronger signals and sharper images, as part of the renewal of the centre’s capabilities.
“Increasingly advanced technology has speeded up the research process from months and weeks to a few hours, depending on what is being investigated," Olivier said.
Researchers using the centre’s facilities work across disciplines including physics, chemistry, engineering, zoology, biochemistry, physiology, medicine, nanomedicine, marine science, geology, agriculture, manufacturing, and green energy.
Olivier said without the ability to characterise and understand matter at the atomic and nanoscale, SA would be constrained in its ability to contribute meaningfully to national and global research.
“Maintaining this capability is essential for SA to participate in addressing global challenges, develop and adapt technologies locally for national development, and remain an active partner in international science and innovation.”
