History of the Microbeam Laboratory

Bill Wilson, one of the pioneers of Nevada’s ongoing gold boom, staked some of the first claims in what is now the Cortez Gold Mine. Wilson owned and ran one of first commercial heap leach mining operations at the Windfall Gold Mine. Wilson generously gave back to Nevada with a $750,000 gift through his Wilson Family Foundation to establish a new Microbeam Laboratory at the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering.

Established in 2015, the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering Microbeam Laboratory houses two state of the art JEOL scanning electron microscopes (SEM), a field emission SEM and an easy to use portable tungsten-filament SEM. The field emission SEM has an Oxford energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) systems and a Deben cathodoluminescence (CL) detector. The tungsten-filament SEM has low-vacuum capabilities, which allows for examination of biologic and other moist materials.

The lab is transforming research in the earth sciences at Mackay and within the College of Science. The lab is also utilized by other departments and Colleges at the University, as well as external entities, fostering cooperation and collaboration among the University, the city of Reno, greater Nevada and researchers throughout the world.

Our mission is to make the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering Microbeam Laboratory the microscopy lab of choice for the western U.S.