User Training

Prior Training in Electron Microscopy:

People who wish to operate TEMs must have at least one college-level course in TEM with a lab component or previous TEM experience. The college course can't be one in which TEM was just one of many topics. For researchers who lack academic training and/or practical experience in electron microscopy, we suggest the short courses in TEM at the McCrone College of Microscopy, and the hands-on TEM courses at Northwestern University or the University of Chicago.
People who wish to operate SEMs must have at least one college-level course in SEM with a lab component or previous SEM experience or they must read a document which the EMC will provide and achieve a grade of 80% on the test of that material.

Argonne-supplied Training:
All researchers who will be present in the EMC laboratories for experiments must take the following on-line courses before they start work in the EMC. Argonne employees only need to take EMC101; they have already taken the other three courses.

EMC101, EMC Users Orientation; required annually
ESH100U, ANL User Facility Orientation (or ESH100); a one-time course
ESH223U, Cyber Security Program Training (or ESH223); required annually
ESH377, Electrical Safety Awareness; required every 3 years

To access the courses, you will need your user ID and password supplied to you by the Argonne User Facilities On-Line Registration System. You will then able to take the required courses on-line before you arrive at the EMC. The required Argonne courses are available to registered users at User Facility Courses for Non-Resident Users.

Instrument-specific Training:
Prospective microscope users must receive on-the-job training for each microscope that they will use. That training is provided by an EMC staff member using the instrument-specific standard operating procedures (SOP) and other materials as seems necessary. Safety has been incorporated into the SOPs by restricting the users to certain operations, by written/posted warnings, and by written instructions for off-normal or emergency situations. Trainees must go through a rigorous period of familiarization under the supervision of a designated user, and they must demonstrate to the responsible EMC staff member that they can operate each instrument according to its SOP before they will be qualified as a user. The EMC staff member is responsible for determining when the prospective user is qualified to operate the microscope.

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