The Micro Imaging Lab contains a JEOL JSM-IT100 InTouchScope scanning electron microscope. The SEM is flexible and powerful, using secondary electron imaging to reveal very small surface topography, backscatter electron imaging to reveal phases with different mean atomic weight, and energy-dispersive X-Ray analysis of natural materials. The SEM is especially useful for studying regions that range in size from a millimeter to a micron or less.

Undergraduate student, Rida, uses the SEM to take images of foraminifera (marine microfossils) from the Gulf of Mexico.