Department of Physics
Portland State University
Portland, OR 97201
Telephone: (503)725-8929
Email: nadeau@pdx.edu
Purpose and Scope
The goal of this 2.5-day workshop will be to bring together scientists and engineers to develop innovative concepts for imaging extant microbial life in extreme environments on Earth and on Icy Worlds.
Some of the most remarkable findings in environmental microbiology relate to the extreme conditions under which living microorganisms may be found on Earth. Recent technological developments, such as the Flow Cytobot, have revolutionized the study of microorganisms at the 10 µm scale and above, but micron-scale organisms (bacteria, archaea, and especially viruses) remain a neglected size scale for which limited (or no) in situ imaging has been performed.
Specific target areas include the open ocean, sea ice, glacier ice, and hydrothermal vents. Target populations include bacteria, archaea, single-cell eukaryotes, and viruses. We wish to considera full range of technologies for imaging microbial life, ranging from super-resolution light microscopy and volumetric microscopy to electron microscopy and scanned probe microscopies.
We hope that by fostering communication among field scientists, astrobiologists, and innovators in microscopy and microanalysis, we can bring new tools and new insights to the study of life, here on Earth and beyond.