Events

CharFac Exhibit at ASV 2026

The American Society for Virology (ASV) holds one of the largest and most important virology conferences in the world, fostering international scientific collaboration. CharFac is proud to participate this year and will be highlighting the facility's capabilities in the exhibit hall!

CharFac Annual Meeting 2026

There will be an introduction from CharFac followed by a series of talks from users and staff, as well as a poster session. More details and registration link to come, so save the date!

IPRIME Annual Meeting

Mark your calendars for this year's IPRIME Annual Meeting from May 26-28, 2026, on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus! This meeting attracts several hundred participants and offers a lively scientific exchange between our member companies and the faculty and students involved in IPRIME’s research programs.

More information will be available soon on the IPRIME website. Registration opens April 15.

Seminar: FIB roads less traveled: site-specific sample prep for TEM plan-view and in-situ studies

Modern focused ion beam (FIB) tools excel at end-to-end lift-out preparation of precisely located cross-section samples that are suitable for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Atomic resolution TEM analyses of high quality cross-section samples are now routine, maybe even reliably easy. The CharFac's FEI Helios G4 UX also enables other types of TEM samples that are more complicated and less commonly required, yet which can richly complement typical cross-section samples. CharFac TEM scientist Michael Odlyzko will review how and why we use FIB to prepare TEM samples for plan-view analysis and in-situ heating/biasing experiments.

Please use the following google form link to register:

https://forms.gle/USdpX4CUd8nvWLMv6

POLY/PMSE Workshop: Analytical science applied to polymer chemistry/engineering

Come join POLY/PMSE to learn about three analytical techniques commonly used in polymer chemistry/engineering and available for use at the UMN Characterization Facility: Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-Ray Scattering (SAXS & WAXS), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

MN ASM 2026 Symposium

Materials Characterization of Coatings, Substrates and Surfaces Symposium

This event will feature invited speakers from CharFac, as well as a tour of the facility.

Please see the ASM website for more details and the link to register:

https://chapter.mnasm.org/index.php/jevents/eventdetail/137/-/mn-asm-2026-symposium

Analytical Microscopy in the Earth & Planetary Sciences

The Geological Society of London is pleased to announce a brand new 2-day hybrid conference! Held on February 26th-27th 2026. Analytical Microscopy in the Earth and Planetary Sciences (AMEPS) will highlight & discuss recent developments and opportunities for the use of analytical microscopy across the geosciences, including the use of optical, electron, and X-ray microscopy, as well as the tools and platforms for processing data within research, industry, and museums or collections.

Session topics include, but are not limited to, new methods and developments, chemical & structural analysis across space and time, digital twins and big data, 2D vs 3D vs 4D techniques, digital methods in geoscience exploration, automated mineralogy, XCT/XRM, the use of EBSD in geological history reconstructions, synchrotron techniques in analytical microscopy, and the intersection of SEM/TEM/FIB-SEM. If you take part in any form of analytical microscopy or just have an interest in what's happening in the community, then this is the conference for you!

Virtual attendance for students is completely free! Registration and abstract submissions open soon, and any questions can be emailed to [email protected].

We hope to see you there!

https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/events/analytical-microscopy-in-the-earth-planetary-sciences-ameps/

[CANCELLED] 2026 IPRIME Mid-Year Workshop

This event has been cancelled. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

Dear IPRIME Colleagues,

I am excited to invite you to attend the IPRIME (Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering) mid-year workshop. IPRIME workshops bring together experts from both industry and academia on focused topics of mutual interest. All events will be located on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Registration is required by Friday, Jan. 16.

Plastic Film Circularity: Ambition, Reality, and Opportunity

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026
2 p.m.-Local facility tours (optional)

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026
Health Sciences Education Center (HSEC)
526 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
8:30 a.m. Registration and light breakfast
9 a.m.-Session begins
3 p.m.-Workshop concludes

Register now

This workshop aims to move beyond why we must act and focuses on what challenges persist and how we can collectively succeed. The goal is to identify and map the hurdles being faced today within plastic films, and collaboratively outline the reseach, development, and innovation needed to overcome them. Topics include:

view from across the plastics value chain
technical experts panel: feedstocks, processing, and performance
lightening pitches from startups

The full agenda and speaker details will be updated on the IPRIME Mid-Year Workshop web page as they become available.

Sponsored by IPRIME, M-SPIRE, and the Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP), the intent of the workshop is to convene technical leaders from across the value chain, from material suppliers and converters to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and academic researchers.

Workshop attendance is included in your organization's IPRIME membership. Please distribute this to other interested colleagues in your organization so we can continue to bring together experts from both industry and academia around this topic of mutual interest.

If you are not an IPRIME member or M-SPIRE partner, please contact [email protected] or Chris Ellison at [email protected] to inquire about membership or attendance as an invited guest.

For more information, visit the IPRIME website.

CharFac Seminar: "The D8 Discover Microdiffractometer: A tool to study the structure and morphology of thin-film, bulk, and powder crystals"

In this talk Dr. Javier Garcia-Barriocanal will present a collection of results obtained using the Bruker D8 Discover microdiffractometer. This instrument combines a 2D X-ray detector and a X-ray point source that significantly increases the detection limit of crystalline thin films and particles. We will also highlight the application of RSLab software, an in-house development tool that takes full advantage of large collections of data and allows its representation in the three dimensions of the reciprocal space.

Please use the following google form link to register:

https://forms.gle/u3JoykMuQJr8fzEv7

Symposium: New Glacios Cryo-TEM and Aquilos Cryo-FIB in CharFac

Single-particle analysis (SPA) through cryo-EM now delivers near-atomic 3D structures of proteins and complexes under near-native conditions, though without cellular context. Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) fills this gap by visualizing proteins in their functional environments, revealing interactions that are crucial for cell biology.

The Characterization Facility (CharFac) at University of Minnesota offers SPA, microED and cryo-ET capabilities and the ability to work with soft samples with the Thermo Scientific Glacios 2 Cryo-TEM and Thermo Scientific Aquilos 2 Cryo-FIB. Join this symposium to learn how your research can be empowered with the latest cryo-EM techniques!

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=LXJ9toqqd0ehaevremo7Z6RXakzebylKrlO5-jhzk8FUMzZFUDZaR1E0MkRFV0EzNDE4RFBLQVZZMC4u&origin=QRCode&route=shorturl

Flyer attached with symposium overview and schedule.

CharFac Seminar: EPMA

Please join us for a CharFac seminar "From Electrons to Mars: Using Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) to Reveal Billions of Years of History at CharFac"

Presented by Dr. Jennifer Mitchell

Please register using the following link: https://forms.gle/n2L1PyoAoKLvazWR8

Nanomechanical Testing Workshop

Bruker is pleased to co-host a two-day nanomechanical testing workshop in collaboration with the University of Minnesota on September 18-19, 2025.

Please see the attached flyer.

Registration link.