The Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis awards the Hitachi Scholarship in Electron Microscopy annually to two graduate students generating cutting-edge research and publications in the area of electron microscopy. The scholarship was established by Hitachi High-Technologies as part of their partnership with the University of Arizona. 

Maizey Benner

Maizey is a third-year Ph.D. student at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Her research focuses on unraveling the thermodynamic history of phosphorus- and sulfur-bearing minerals in aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites using coordinated electron microscopy techniques. Maizey uses the Hitachi HF5000 S/TEM and S-4800 SEM to characterize the structure and chemistry of these materials from the millimeter to atomic scale. About the award, Maizey says, "Receiving the Hitachi Electron Microscopy Scholarship has given me great confidence in my work, and encouragement to pursue further training in electron microscopy. I am honored to receive such an award and look forward to completing my Ph.D. research using the Hitachi microscopes."

Lucas Smith

LPL graduate student Lucas Smith uses the Hitachi instruments in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis to study presolar stardust grains in aqueously-altered meteorites. In particular, he says, "the Hitachi HF5000 TEM allows me to obtain critical information on the chemical composition, structure, and mineralogy of presolar grains in the context of their host meteorites. This information also allows me to understand the conditions under which the presolar grains formed in their parent star as well as how aqueous processing on asteroids affects presolar phases."