Equipment: MRI: Track 1 acquisition of a state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope for research and training

An award is made to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to enable the purchase and commissioning of a new Transmission Electron Microscope equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy system to be housed in the Biological Electron Microscopy Facility located on the main campus of the University. This advanced instrument will significantly enhance research and training capabilities across biology, materials science, and engineering disciplines while providing crucial educational opportunities for students annually through graduate research, undergraduate honors projects, and comprehensive training programs. The facility engages in numerous educational and outreach activities, utilizing the microscope for demonstrations in kindergarten through grade 12 science classes at local public and private schools, laboratory sessions for undergraduate and graduate courses, and specialized workshops for community college faculty and students. As the only fully equipped electron microscopy facility serving the state of Hawaiʻi, this instrument will strengthen existing partnerships across the University of Hawaiʻi system, government organizations, and industry collaborators, while supporting workforce development in advanced microscopy techniques essential for the research infrastructure and economic development of Hawai’i. The enhanced capabilities of the new TEM will advance frontier-pushing research programs across diverse scientific domains. Research activities enabled by the instrument's exceptional magnification, 0.20 nanometer resolution, and simultaneous elemental analysis capabilities include investigating physiological mechanisms enabling larval zooplankton survival in extreme sub-arctic environments, characterizing marine species dispersal and connectivity across vast Pacific oceanic distances, documenting fine-scale morphological adaptations in cave-dwelling arthropods, illuminating cellular characteristics of abundant marine bacteria, and understanding how giant viruses thrive in nutrient-poor ocean conditions. The system's integrated analytical platform will provide transformative insights into host-microbe interactions, protein topology, cellular ultrastructure, and viral-host dynamics, fundamentally advancing scientific knowledge across marine biology, evolutionary ecology, and molecular sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.