Training the next generation of electron microprobe analysts is a fundamental goal of UK-EPMA. Our team of tutors comes from the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Mancheter and Oxford and is supplemented by experts from AWE and Johnson Matthey. The team have been running residential courses since 2014 under the guise of EMAS and NERC. A course can be tailored to the needs of a specific cohort or offered at an introductory level to a range of users from the broad spectrum of materials science. Additionally we offer one-to-one training for individuals at any of the host universities.

2020 Short Course - Fundamentals of EPMA

Course Tutors:  Iris Buisman, Ben Buse, Jon Fellowes, Stuart Kearns, Jon Wade, Richard Walshaw, Mike Matthews, Gareth Hatton.

First run: EMAS Short Course "Fundamentals of EPMA", 2014, Bristol, UK

Course Description: A series of lectures, practicals, paper exercises, and review sessions: The course comes with a 100-page booklet detailing the full contents: Lectures: 1) Overview of X-ray generation in the EPMA; 2) Energy Dispersive Spectrometry; 3) Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometry; 4) EPMA simulation – Practical aspects; 5) Use of Standards; 6) Quantitative EPMA; 7) Advanced EPMA topics. 8) Industrial applications of EPMA. Together with Practicals  1) The Energy Dispersive Spectrum; 2)  X-ray mapping in the EPMA; 3)The Wavelength Dispersive Spectrum; 4) Monte Carlo Modelling; 5) Quantitative EPMA; 6) Trace Element Analysis; 7) Low Voltage EPMA. Additionally there are two review sessions to recap analyses performed on instruments in the two overnight periods (one on post-processing X-ray maps and a second on quantitative data handling and errors). There are also opportunities to discuss students’ own research area in personal discussions with the course tutors.