CDMMS 2010 January Secretary’s Report

2009 kicked off with our Annual Business Meeting here at Glen Sanders with a great turn out of about 35 members and a wonderful talk from RPI’s Material Science Engineer Chair, Dr. Robert Hull. He talked about how to expand FIB and TEM to address a broad set of materials, specifically imaging dopants in semiconductor materials.

Then in April of 09’ we gathered at the GE Research Center for a light meal and a very interesting talk from Joseph Pyle on the Geochronology of Rare-earth Phosphates using the Electron Microprobe Analyzer.

In September, we welcomed the MAS tour speaker Robert Simmons. He spoke about Fungi in the Human Environment and the problems that can arise when these organisms invade our everyday life.

And in November, CDMMS teamed up with ASM to host the annual Materials Poster and Micrograph contest and exhibit at RPI. Our speaker for this event was Dr. Joseph Goldstein from the University of Massachusetts, who spoke about the Fe-Ni phase diagram, Widmanstatten microstructure, and the formation and history of iron meteorites.

Other updates:

New website www.cdmms.org where you can find upcoming local and national meeting information, officers, meeting minutes, past presenters, and information on how to become a member.

There has also been a change to Bylaws, which is the change in Treasury and Secretary from 1 year to 2 year terms, and Vice President to President Elect which ascends into the President position after one year.

Reminder that if there is any information on the website that is incorrect or needs to be updated, such as email address, please forward those to me. KAPL folks, if you can provide me with an additional email, if possible.

Upcoming meetings:

Have not yet been determined but the group plans to get together in the next couple weeks to plan 2010 meetings. We have been discussing an “Art of Microscopy” related poster exhibit at Union College. Details are still to be set.

CDMMS 2010 January Treasurer’s Report

Approximately 41 paid members.

4 corporate sponsors : GE, Oxford, Bruker and Zeiss. Gave us $800 total this year.

Starting balance was $2375. Deposits (dues, meeting fees, corporate donations) of $2975, expenditures (mostly for catering at meetings) of $3085, ending balance was $2265.

Beside meeting expenses we provided prizes for micrograph competition at the November meeting, paid for a dedicated website, CDMMS.org, and purchased a liability insurance policy that will allow us to use more public meeting spaces.

Elected Officers

The CDMMS members and officers voted for a new President Elect. The member chosen for this position was Mike Marko of the Wadsworth Center.

Introduction of speaker-Paul Hlava

Gemstone Synthesis

Paul Hlava

Access to Gems and Minerals, Inc.

P. O. Box 80784

Albuquerque, NM 87198-0784

From antiquity, gemstones have been so very highly prized for their beauty and rarity that they have always been difficult and/or expensive to acquire. Therefore it seems only natural that people would try to mimic them with less costly, artificial materials, often with noble intentions, sometimes with not so noble intentions. In olden times, let us say before 1800, these artificial materials were mere substitutes or simulants of variable quality. It wasn’t until the end of the 18^th century, when the science of analytical chemistry was well developed, that people knew what elements and contaminants were needed to form the desirable stones. From then on the race was afoot to produce synthetic materials identical to the best, perfect, natural stones. These quests benefited science and technology in that the researchers had to develop/perfect and control means of producing and stabilizing very high temperatures, medium to very high pressures, and extremely pure starting materials.

In this colorful talk I will discuss many of the technologies used to produce true synthetic gemstones as well as simulants. I will follow a more or less chronological path to briefly cover the various techniques and the materials they create - such as –

Technique Synthetic or Simulated Material

Flame fusion or Vernueil ruby, sapphire(s), spinel(s)

Czochralski ruby, sapphire(s), spinel(s), alexandrite

Flux growth those above plus emerald

Hydrothermal emerald, quartz

High pressure – high temperature diamond

Skull melting cubic zirconia

High temperature diffusion moissanute

Chemical vapor deposition diamond

Bio -

Paul Hlava recently retired from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was staff member in charge of the electron microprobe laboratory. Paul worked on a wide variety of materials including alloys, welds, brazes, solders, ceramics, low-temperature superconductors, electronic materials, phosphors, nuclear waste simulants, thermal batteries, etc. Paul has written, co-authored, and/or presented over a hundred papers on a wide variety of materials.

Paul graduated from the University of New Mexico with a geology MS in 1974. At UNM he worked as a research graduate doing probe research under Klaus Keil in the Institute of Meteoritics. He worked on moon rocks, Hawaiian basalts, ultramafic rocks, meteorites, and inclusions in diamonds and has been co-discoverer and co-author on the descriptions of several new mineral species. Paul has a business, Access to Gems and Minerals, Inc., dealing in gemstones, jewelry, and related items.