Information Sheet for prospective applicants for the post of Chief Technical Officer / Senior Technical Officer / Technical Officer in the Electron Microscope Unit at UCT. Our mission is the provision of microscopy services in response to research needs and within the limits of our budget. Services include user education, consultation concerning projects, sample preparation, scanning, transmission and light microscopy, digital image capture, processing and printing and assistance with manuscript preparation. Specifically excluded from our services are routine diagnostic and quality control work. The services of the EMU are available to anyone although we do not actively promote our services outside the three Western Cape universities. A certain amount of non university work is undertaken when we are requested to do so and this takes up some free time on the instruments and brings in a small amount of money. The existence of the Unit is part of a wider strategy which seeks to centralize widely used and expensive resources. This makes sense not only as a cost saving device but also because the techniques and applications of electron microscopy are a field of study in their own right. The annual budget of the Unit is about R1.4m The Electron Microscope Unit occupies much of the second level of the R.W. James building on the upper campus. The Unit houses the following major equipment: LEO S440 digital scanning electron microscope with Ÿ Secondary Electron Detector Ÿ Centaurus BSD Ÿ Four quadrant solid state BSD Ÿ CL Ÿ CL spectrometer Ÿ Kevex Sigma 2 EDS Ÿ Cryo transfer system LEO / Cambridge S200 scanning electron microscope with Ÿ Secondary Electron Detector Ÿ Deben stage automation Ÿ HKL EBSP analysis system Ÿ Four quadrant solid state detector Ÿ Orion digital imaging system JEOL 200CX transmission electron microscope Ÿ 200kV Ÿ High tilt goniometer Ÿ Astrocam 4100 CCD camera LEO / Zeiss EM 109 Leica Ultracut cryo ultramicrotome KF80 plunge freezer Leica Diaplan Hoffmann Modulation Contrast Microscope Nikon Inverted Fluorescent microscope Wild M400 Photomacroscope Zeiss Axiocam digital camera Balzers Critcal Point Dryer Sputter coater Two Balzers High Vacuum coating plants Specimen polisher Nikon 4500AF film scanner Codonics dye sublimation printer Technosyn optical cathodoluminescence. Good computing facilities including a dual processor Alpha UP2000 system We expect to install a JEOL 1200EX with cryo and ccd focussing camera and a Leafscan 45 negative scanner in Jan/Feb 2001. Also we have budgeted for a number of additions to our cryo TEM facilities. An application to the Wellcome Trust for a 200kV energy filtering microscope and a high pressure freezer is currently in preparation. The Unit is managed by a Director, and has a staff of two full time and one part time technical officers and a departmental assistant in addition to the post advertised. Full time technical staff are obliged to work 37.5 hours per week and have an annual leave of 20 working days as well as compulsory leave between Christmas and New Year. The previous incumbent of the post managed the Scanning Electron Microscope facilities and had a range of duties which included consultation with users, instrument operation, sample preparation, user training and routine maintenance. The Electron Microscope Unit sees the appointment of a new person as an opportunity to focus on future planned activities (which include several aspects of cryo-microscopy) and will look for a person with interest and experience in electron microscopy who will further the mission of the Unit and whose talents complement those of the other staff. Further information about the Unit may be obtained from our web site at: http://www.uct.ac.za/depts/emu