Different Views, Sharper Images: The Women Advancing Electron Microscopy

Electron microscopy (EM) has never been a discipline that stood still. Continuous innovation has rapidly moved both academia and industry forward, expanding our knowledge of what is possible. Consider how much ground has been covered in a relatively short amount of time— aberration correction, which became commercially viable in the early 2000s, enabled scientists to overcome the longstanding resolution limitations and turned atomic-scale imaging into a routine capability. The “resolution revolution” followed, opening the door for structural biology to solve structures of proteins and complexes that had evaded study for decades. In 2017, the technique was recognized with the Nobel Prize in chemistry. More recently, the development of direct electron detectors dramatically improved signal quality and acquisition speed, and four-dimensional (4D) scanning transmission EM (STEM) has given researchers a way to map electric and magnetic fields inside materials at the nanoscale. These advances have paved the way for new discoveries across fields that rely on EM for advanced insights, such as life sciences, materials sciences, and the semiconductor industry. What is less visible, however, is how many of these advancements were driven by researchers who brought genuinely different perspectives to the discipline— scientists from different backgrounds, different specializations, and with different ways of framing how to use the technique. As we think about driving the next generation of breakthroughs, it is critical that we collectively work to build a community that draws diverse perspectives. That’s why we continue to celebrate contributions from women in EM and across industries at Thermo Fisher Scientific. The instrumentation has evolved tremendously over the past several decades and so has the science it enables, but these changes did not happen on their own. Women across the field have dedicated their careers to making EM data more accessible, creating methodologies to unlock entirely new areas of study and teaching the next generation of microscopists. Bridget Carragher is one of the key architects of modern automated cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) infrastructure, and she now leads advanced biological imaging initiatives at the Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging. Dr. Carragher’s work transformed how EM data get collected and processed. As a staunch advocate for both the quality of EM data and accessibility, she focused on streamlining and automating methods that could be implemented by microscopists at any experience level. Currently, Dr. Carragher continues her lifelong mission to transform next-generation microscopy methods, advancing the future of cryo-electron tomography by enabling precise high-throughput targeting of rare cellular structures for in situ structural biology [1]. Karren More, currently the director at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), began her career as a visiting researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1980s, where she laid the groundwork methodology for present-day users of state-of-the-art EM resources. Dr. More helped push microscopy beyond imaging alone into a quantitative tool for understanding how materials function, fail, and evolve at the atomic scale, particularly in energy and nanotechnology applications. Her work sits at the intersection of EM and real-world problems and establishing methods standards. Her pioneering work and continued innovations at the CNMS will continue to advance capabilities in quantum materials, AI, and autonomous materials discovery and advanced manufacturing [2]. Shirley Meng applied her cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) expertise to understanding battery materials, and it is a striking example of integrating the technique into a field that vastly benefits from it. Many battery materials are notoriously beam-sensitive, but Dr. Meng’s research gave scientists a way to explore cleaner energy battery solutions. More recently, her team confirmed better standards for studying battery samples safely and more efficiently, which can be applied across industry and academia [3]. Martha “Molly” McCartney’s work on electron holography as professor at Arizona State University has contributed to fields ranging from semiconductors to structural ceramics, enabling unique insights into nanoscale phenomena. During her trailblazing career, she has consistently invested in teaching and has published more than 200 journal papers that have been cited over 7,500 times, which is itself a significant contribution to the field. The contributions above represent the academic side of a much larger story. In industry, the pressure to solve problems is often measured in product cycles. Lynne Gignac has spent more than three decades at IBM Research applying transmission EM to imaging and analyzing cutting-edge semiconductor devices at advanced nodes. Her work helped bridge the gap between academic understanding and industrial process development, establishing advanced EM techniques as indispensable to high-throughput industry workflows. These women represent a fraction of the women whose research has defined what EM can do. In structural biology, women have led groups responsible for some of the most significant protein structures resolved over the past decade that are now the basis for modern therapies and vaccines [4]. In the semiconductor industry, where EM is an increasingly important technique for characterizing defects in advanced semiconductors, women are at the forefront of defining and implementing the methodology. Diverse perspectives help to generate new ideas and further innovation. A few years ago, it would have been easy to assume that the responsibility for diversifying science fell entirely on academic institutions. Thankfully, that view has changed. Organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club of America and Girls Who Code, are investing in partnerships that increase access to early STEM education, to help build a more diverse scientific community that generates better science. If a young person has never encountered scientific instrumentation, never spoken to a working scientist, or never been told that the field is for them, then the recruitment efforts that happen later are playing catch-up. Early intervention matters. Building forums to support women across career stages is just as important. The Women in Microscopy breakfast has been held annually at the Microscopy & Microanalysis conference since the 1970s. What started as an informal breakfast with no institutional support or formal program has grown into a beloved and sacred event for many in the industry. Today, it is a cherished venue for women in microscopy to connect, reconnect, and support each other in their research and careers. Since 2002, the breakfast has featured a keynote speaker to talk about her research and career. The candor of those talks is what makes them different from a standard conference presentation. The list of speakers over the past two-plus decades reads like a who's who of women in the field— Bridget Carragher, Molly McCartney, Karren More, Shirley Meng, Tommi White, Amelia Dampere, and many others— and the conversations those talks have started have continued long after the coffee cups were cleared. In recent years, the breakfast has become increasingly attended by allies who have helped create awareness of the challenges faced by women throughout the scientific community. This shift has been welcomed. Changing the culture of a scientific field is not something a subset can do on its own, so this enables everyone to work toward a more inclusive and representative future. The challenges that micro­scopists aim to solve— for example, designing better battery materials, understanding how diseases progress at the molecular level, developing cleaner industrial processes, and building the next generation of semiconductors— require more than incremental thinking. The researchers who make the most significant advances in EM over the next decade will increasingly be women and come from backgrounds that have not always seen themselves reflected in this community. That is not a prediction based on optimism; rather, it is a recognition of what has already been built. Every time a different perspective is applied to a hard problem, the set of possible solutions gets larger. That is true in structural biology, materials characterization, energy research, and in any domain where EM is being used to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. The work of building that community is not finished, but its value is already visible. We see it in the careers of researchers who found their footing in this discipline, in the connections that have lasted decades, and in the science those connections have made possible. Lee Pullan From a small gathering in the 1970s to a room of well over 100 attendees, in this photo from 2022, the annual Women in Microscopy breakfast at the Microscopy & Microanalysis meeting reflects decades of remarkable growth. Lee Pullan, Thermo Fisher Scientific, with 2019 breakfast speaker Tommi White, Bayer Crop Science, at the Microscopy & Microanalysis meeting in Portland, OR. Annual pins, first introduced in 2008, commemorate each year's Women in Microscopy breakfast. Pins are uniquely designed to reflect the host city and speak to the many years Thermo Fisher has sponsored this annual tradition at the Microscopy & Microanalysis meeting. Lee Pullan (right), Thermo Fisher Scientific, with Amelia Dempere (left), University of Florida, keynote speaker at the 2025 Women in Microscopy breakfast. Photograph courtesy of Bev Maleeff. Lee Pullan, Ph.D., is Senior Manager of Application Scientists and Hillsboro Site Leader at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she leads the Americas NanoPort electron microscopy center of excellence in Hillsboro, OR. Since joining the company in 2006 as a life science cryoTEM application scientist, she has supported customers globally and led multiple applications teams across the organization, contributing to advancements in electron microscopy technologies, tomography workflows, and microscopy applications. Lee earned a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Sheffield and a Ph.D. in Life Sciences (Structural Virology) from the University of Warwick. She has also held research positions at the University of Florida, Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. A passionate advocate for women in science and engineering, Lee co-founded the Hillsboro Women’s Empowerment Business Resource Group (WEBRG) chapter [5], previously served as Global Lead for the WEBRG, and co-hosts the annual Women in Microscopy Breakfast at the Microscopy & Microanalysis conference, supporting mentorship, networking and community engagement across the microscopy community.