The Southeastern Microscopy Society, Appalachian Regional Microscopy Society, and the Alabama Imaging and Microscopy Society, the host societies, invite you to Atlanta for Microscopy and Microanalysis Õ98. You will find the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), the meeting hotels, restaurants, and shopping conveniently located within walking distance of each other. Many buildings are interconnected via skywalks. Situated next to the GWCC, the Centennial Olympic Park provides an inviting spot for you to relax.

Home to Coca Cola, CNN Ð the 24 hour news station, and the Peachtree Road Race Ð the worldÕs largest 10K race, Atlanta is truly an international city. However, this city has a definite southern flair. Where else can you find Margaret MitchellÕs home, affectionately called ÒThe DumpÓ, within blocks of the tallest hotel in the western hemisphere Ð The Westin Peachtree Plaza. There is no antebellum home called ÒTaraÓ, but there are 32 streets with ÒPeachtreeÓ in their name!

The Local Arrangements Committee has arranged three tours to give you a feel of Atlanta (see page 03 for specific information). Other Atlanta attractions and activities can be found on page 04. Come to Atlanta for Microscopy & Microanalysis Õ98, but come early or stay late to enjoy all that Atlanta and Georgia have to offer.

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Microscopy Society of America and the Microbeam Analysis Society, we invite you to attend Microscopy and Microanalysis Õ98, July 12-16, Atlanta, Georgia. The Program Chair, Kathi Alexander, and Co-chairs, Jay Jerome, Meredith Bond, and Jon McCarthy have assembled an excellent technical program. An outstanding list of invited speakers highlight the symposia in a number of key areas including emerging instrumentation, image processing and analysis, scanned probe microscopy, high resolution SEM and TEM, and developments in optical microscopy to name a few. A number of specialized symposia dealing with topics such as polymers, biomaterials, apoptosis, semiconducting and superconducting materials, inter-cellular trafficking, corrosion casting, ceramics and minerals, immunocytochemistry and video microscopy are also being developed. Both invited and contributed papers are critical to the success of these symposia. We urge you to submit your work (the abstract deadline is February 1, 1998) for presentation in symposia or regular sessions. Please also note that a number of student and technical staff awards are available which provide registration fees and funds to defray travel and lodging expenses.

A special pre-meeting symposium and workshop on multiphoton excitation imaging as well as a number of Òstate-of-the-artÓ short courses will precede the meeting. Special symposia, presentations and tutorials sponsored by the TechnologistÕs Forum, the MSA Education Committee, and various commercial exhibits will be held during the course of the meeting. There are also Presidential Special Events, ceremonies for Award Winners, and the Commercial Exhibits. A highlight of the meeting will be a special two-day EDS symposium commemorating the 30th anniversary of the first energy dispersive spectrometer which was described by Fitzgerald, Keil, and Heinrich in 1968. This exciting and informative session will include invited presentations on the development and future of ED detectors, spectral characteristics and processing, and qualitative and quantitative techniques. Dr. Heinrich will present the keynote address.

Our Local Arrangements Committee, headed by Janet Woodward, has arranged an excellent venue at the Georgia World Congress Center both for scientific sessions and for the more than 200 exhibits. They have also arranged an exciting program of social events including a Sunday night reception at SciTrek, the Science and Technology Museum of Atlanta, and a Wednesday Evening Dinner at Stone Mountain Park. Atlanta is well known for its scenic environs, family-oriented attractions, its many excellent restaurants, and lively night life. Come to teach, learn, share, and to have fun. Whatever your connection to microscopy, we look forward to welcoming you to Atlanta in July 1998 for Microscopy and Microanalysis Õ98.

Ralph Albrecht, MSA President

Ryna Marinenko, MAS President

Microscopy and Microanalysis Õ98 includes many symposia and general sessions of interest to all members of the sponsoring societies, the Microscopy Society of America (MSA) and the Microbeam Analysis Society (MAS). We have made a special effort to coordinate symposia with other aspects of the meeting such as tutorials and short courses. A pre-meeting symposium/workshop on Multi-Photon Excitation Microscopy will be held on Saturday and Sunday preceding the meeting. This year we celebrate 30 years of Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) as well as Atom Probe Field Ion Microscopy, and special symposia are planned to highlight both of these fields. In particular, the 30 years of EDS symposia (organized by MAS) will be complemented by a symposium on analyzing Òproblem elementsÓ and a symposium on ÒMicroscopy and Microanalysis in the Real WorldÓ. In addition, symposia covering the development and application of microscopy and microanalysis techniques for both the biological and physical sciences are planned.

The technical program each day will consist of a morning platform session, an afternoon poster session and a late afternoon platform session. The symposia and sessions to which you may submit an abstract are listed in the Categories for Papers section of this bulletin (pages 10 - 13).

Other special events will include the MSA/MAS Presidential Events organized by the current presidents of the sponsoring societies; as well as interactive question and answer sessions with experts in various fields of microscopy and microanalysis.

We have designed an exciting and ambitious scientific program for the Microscopy and Microanalysis 1998 Meeting in Atlanta and hope to see all of you there. Remember that abstracts are due by February 1, 1998.

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