MicroscopyPioneers
chuckles as he thinks back on this. “Sometimes we disagreed and he was right, other times it was me, or oſten we were both wrong.” Te necessity of failure, though, is one of Zaluzec’s tenant beliefs. Tere are many cliché sayings regarding lessons learned from failures, but it is more than this for Zaluzec. Fail- ing is an assurance that he is pushing the limits, and it brings forth the important questions he wants to answer: Why did it fail? What are the limitations? Why are there limitations? How can we work around or change those limitations? His aim is not to be state-of-the-art, nor to be the leading edge; he aims to be the “bleeding edge.” He explains that the bleeding edge is dif- ferent from the previous two because it is not stagnant. In 1978, Zaluzec was awarded his doctorate, as well as the
Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship, from Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. He was there for two years before moving back to Illinois to work at Argonne National Laboratory. Still, Zaluzec remains a fellow at Oak Ridge to this day. At Argonne he became the first director of the Electron Microscopy Center. While his position then involved R&D and administration, he is confident he is most useful in the lab. His record supports this statement. In 1996 he filed his first patent for a simultaneous specimen- and stage-cleaning device for an analytical electron microscope, what we now know as the Plasma Cleaner. Tis is arguably his most utilized invention. Perhaps the most notable of his inventions are the scanning confocal electron microscope and the π Steradian Transmission X-ray Detector for electron-optical beam lines and microscopes. He received an R&D 100 Award for the former in 2003 and the latter in 2010. Te R&D 100 Awards are given annually by R&D World magazine to industry-changing prod- ucts and technologies. For Zaluzec the inventions are the natural consequence of his desire to explore important knowledge gaps; they are not born of efforts to be disruptive. In his own words, “We want to be on the frontiers because that is where the inter- esting questions are—questions that need answers today.” His voice is giddy when he begins thinking of what he is
currently working on and what challenges he wants to take on in the next 10 years. He laughs saying he needs multiples of himself and states with full confidence that he knows that some part of him will live on forever in silicon form. Tis is undoubt- edly true. Ten his body shiſts, and for the first time his tone is somber. “What I really need to do is mentor the next genera- tion to tackle these questions. Nothing is ever finished. Tere is no clear-cut end.” Again, his record speaks to his efforts to cultivate the next generation of scientists. Zaluzec has been in a leadership position with the Illinois Junior Academy of Science since 1985, and he is an active member in eight professional societies. All of these efforts are to seek out and find those with queries. He jests that the worst thing you can do is ask him something, but many will attest that this is the polar opposite of the truth. Zaluzec is a scientist whose community spans the globe and whose technologies have expanded our knowledge. He wants nothing more than to help answer the world’s most pressing problems. He is perhaps the most recognizable figure at microscopy meetings, so if you have a question seek him out. I assure you he wants to help you answer it. Nestor J. Zaluzec may try to shrug off his pioneer status, but
with forward-looking inventions and his innate desire to cultivate scientific community, he is indeed a pioneer on many frontiers.
2020 May •
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