AFM Lab Usage Guidelines

The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Laboratory will be open to qualified users for imaging the topography of surfaces at the sub-100 micron scale. Undergraduates and graduate students qualify by passing the Atomic Force Microscopy courses.  Students typically become competent in AFM techniques in approximately one semester, although it takes about a year of constant work to evolve into a fully independent user.  One should not expect research results quickly.  Thus for me to train a student requires a solid commitment to the project on the part of that student's advisor.  All users must follow the written Laboratory Procedures.  I control who has access to the lab.  When you reserve instrument time, I expect that you will make full use of it.

If you are of my project students:

• In addition to the two or three annual lab users' meetings, I want to see you individually for one hour a week.  If I am out of town or unavailable, please email me a summary of your progress and problems.
• Twenty hours a week on your project is the norm, unless you are done with your coursework (~20 hrs/wk) and have no TA duties (~20 hrs/wk).  Then sixty.  Whereas undergraduates are expected to work only during WPI's terms, full-time graduate students are expected to work 48 weeks a year.  Remind me if you are about to leave town.
  
• Please check for email from me at least twice a day, about every twelve hours.  Respond.  If you can't fulfill my request right away, tell me your timeline.
• If you would like feedback from me, please give me adequate time to look at your document.  The longer it is, the more time you should give me.  Even for short documents, I would like two days; for theses and dissertations, two weeks.  Plan accordingly.  All co-authors should be given a chance to comment on a submission. 
  
• Once the final version of a submission has been struck, send a copy to all co-authors for their records.
  
• My name, as an author of scholarly work, is "Nancy A Burnham."  I am officially associated with both Physics and Biomedical Engineering, so please ensure that both departments are listed in the affliations.
  

If you are an undergraduate:

In order to use the AFM Lab independently, you must first pass the Atomic Force Microscopy course, PH 2510, offered in alternate D terms.

I expect you to:

• become familar with the existing literature,
• generate repeatable, well-documented, publishable data,
  
• give lab tours and talk about your work with visitors, and
  
• describe your project with a presentation, report, and poster.
  

If you are a graduate student or a postdoc:

The graduate version of the AFM course is occasionally offered in the spring semester. In order to use the AFM Lab independently, you must first pass the course.

I expect Master's students to:

• contribute to the design of their experiments,
• perform literature searches and learn the existing literature,
  
• generate repeatable, well-documented, publishable data,
  
• give lab tours and talk about their work with visitors,
  
• describe their projects with presentations, theses, posters, and publications at a professional level, and
  
• mentor less experienced students in laboratory skills.
  

I expect Ph.D. candidates to:

• contribute to their research directions,
• perform literature searches, learn the existing literature, and keep the group abreast of the field,
  
• generate repeatable, well-documented, publishable data for themselves and others,
• give lab tours and talk about their work with visitors,
  
• describe their projects with presentations, theses, posters, and publications at a professional level with little guidance from their advisors, and
  
• mentor less experienced students in laboratory and communication skills.

I expect postdocs to:

• provide the initiative for their research,
• perform literature searches, learn the existing literature, and keep the group abreast of the field,
• generate repeatable, well-documented, publishable data for themselves and others,
• give lab tours and talk about their work with visitors,
• describe their projects with presentations, theses, posters, and publications at a professional level with minimal guidance from their advisors,
• help prepare proposals for submission to external funding agencies, and
• mentor less experienced students in all aspects of research.

If you are a WPI or Worcester Consortium professor:

If your project calls for sporadic AFM use, too little for the semester required to train one of your graduate students, or for the term required for an undergraduate to take my AFM course, I would be glad to have a trained student help you one time for half a day.  Because of limited time and personnel, additional sessions would be handled on a fee basis, if we can accommodate your request.

The consumables, cantilevers, cost $30 to $250 each, and you may use several in a day.  Commercial rates are $400-500/hr on an hourly basis, or on a per-sample basis, $500-700 each.  On the other end of the spectrum, the internal rate at one MIT lab is $87/hr unassisted and $262/hr assisted.

If your project calls for consistent AFM use, you must have your students enroll in and pass one of the AFM courses before they may use the lab.  Then, depending on how well the project is aligned with my own interests, the lab reservation fee ranges from $90/hr to free.

If you are external to the Worcester Consortium and need some AFM service work done:

Call me to discuss the project and possible arrangements. 

Prof NA Burnham
Departments of Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road
Worcester MA 01609-2280 USA
(508) 831-5365, nab@wpi.edu