A Day in the life of
Chris Parmenter
CHRIS PARMENTER
Research officer in cryogenic
electron microscopy at NNNC
Chris has been working in the Nottingham
Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Centre (NNNC) at
the University of Nottingham since November 2009.
He talks to David Sait about his work.
Pathway to
success
2009–present, research
officer at the Nottingham
Nanotechnology and
Nanoscience centre
2008–2009, lecturer in
chemistry at City College
Coventry
2005–2008,
postdoctoral researcher
in biosciences at the
University of Warwick
2002–2005, PhD in
polymer chemistry at the
University of Warwick
1998–2002, MChem
with german at the
University of Hull
Whereas a normal microscope relies on light reflected
from an object to make it visible, an SEM bounces a
stream of electrons onto the item, and an image is built
from the electrons that bounce back. Typical objects that
Chris can observe are only a few microns in size (one
micron is 0.001 mm). The process also generates x-rays.
These allow Chris to identify what the material is made of
so he can find out chemical and structural information.
The scientific process
The NNNC is an interdisciplinary collaborative centre at
the University and it supports research across a variety
of disciplines including physics, chemistry, pharmacy
and engineering. As a result, a lot of the research that
Chris is involved with is outside his own particular area
of expertise. He often needs to get to grips with an
unfamiliar topic, so he spends time reading around the
subject so he can understand the samples he has and
how he might characterise them.
During a typical day, Chris could start by meeting PhD
students, postdoctoral researchers or other academic
staff to discuss the samples they need to image and
the information they require. He needs to understand
the nature of the sample and what the researcher’s
requirements are so he can decide on the most
appropriate methods to obtain the images.
There is no such thing as a standard sample or method
for analysing it. Chris uses a scientific, iterative, process
to obtain images and make sense of the information.
The microscopes operate under a very high vacuum,
so biological samples and those from food and plant
science are often cryogenically frozen in liquid nitrogen,
preventing the water inside them from evaporating. This
preserves the structure and shape of the object under
investigation. Chris can cut into the samples using a
focussed ion beam inside the microscope and take
images of the internal structures that have been revealed.
Recently Chris has worked with researchers from the
food sciences department. They are looking at new,
greener methods of extracting oil from seeds. They
asked Chris to try and obtain images of the inside of
the seed, so they can identify where the oil particles are
stored and what they look like.
This information will allow the researchers to improve
the technologies they are working on for isolating the
oil. This new process will be much
more environmentally friendly as it
won’t rely on organic solvents for
extracting the oil.
1996–1998, Chemistry,
geology, german and
french A-levels, and
mathematics AS-level, at
Seevic Sixth Form College
in Essex
A scanning electron
microscope image of
a freeze-fractured
rape seed
Seeing is believing
There are many methods for
measuring the size of particles,
however Chris says that actually
being able to see them means that
we can understand them better. He
also says that his favourite part of
his job is knowing that he is one
of the very few people in the world
who can see matter on such a
small scale.
CHRIS PARMENTER
Small is beautiful
Chris is an expert in cryogenic electron microscopy. Using
a tool called a focussed ion beam scanning electron
microscope (FIB-SEM), he is able to examine very small
objects which are usually invisible to the naked eye.
InfoChem
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