LAUSR

I met Elizabeth Ann Ellis in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia at the Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Electron Microscopy Society of America. At that time, Ann was well known for her extensive knowledge of electron microscopy (EM), especially specimen preparation, chemistry, and formulation of embedding resins. Despite her established reputation, she never stopped her quest to improve microscopy. She never stopped sharing the knowledge and skills gained from her quest. She never stopped urging her colleagues to address problems by thinking methodically and critically. In her abstract for the 2013 Microscopy Society of America meeting, Technologists’ Forum: Roundtable Discussion of Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), she posed 22 questions critical to the quest for ways to overcome the challenge of using EDS for biological materials [1-2]. In doing so, she reminded microscopists that 90% of their work is specimen preparation and pointed out the dilemma posed by the need to prevent both loss of elements and charging in preparing specimen for EDS [4-8].