Session I:
January 15, 2026, 11 AM, EST
Microscopy Research & Outreach
Microscopy Innovations
Delong America
Prepmaster 5100 EM Specimen Prep Robt
Microscopy Innovations
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Jiří Týč
The Biological Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Jiří Týč is an imaging scientist at the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, specializing in advanced electron microscopy and 3D volume EM workflows. His work focuses on SBF-SEM, serial sectioning, array tomography, and electron tomography, with an emphasis on optimizing sample preparation and imaging strategies for challenging biological material. Jiří has a background in molecular biology and spent several years at Oxford Brookes University investigating cytoskeletal and organelle architecture in Trypanosoma brucei.
He currently leads multiple collaborative projects involving volume EM, contributes to methodological development in sample preparation and data analysis, and has authored numerous publications spanning parasitology, cell biology, and microscopy methods. Jiří is also active in community training and outreach, organizing workshops and giving talks on advanced imaging technologies.
Duncan Sousa
Duncan is Operations Director of the Beckman Center for Cryo‑EM at Johns Hopkins. He discovered electron microscopy in 1998 as an undergraduate in Bob Glaeser’s lab working on bacteriorhodopsin and later worked for Ken Downing on rhodopsin. Advised to broaden his perspective, he trained with Niko Grigorieff at Brandeis, focusing on cryo‑EM and single‑particle analysis. His postdoctoral research on the actin–tropomyosin complex was the first to reveal the structural mechanism of tropomyosin regulation in smooth muscle filaments. He then ran the Consortium for Microscopy of Macromolecular Machines (SECM4) at Florida State University and later built the Beckman Center for Cryo‑EM at Johns Hopkins.
Emmanuel Smith
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Emmanuel Smith is a structural biologist and cryo-EM applications specialist at JEOL USA with extensive experience implementing and optimizing SerialEM workflows for high-throughput data collection. He has worked closely with academic labs, biotech teams, and facility managers to refine cryo-EM data collection strategies, strengthen automation reliability, and support stable unattended multiday and multisample acquisition. Emmanuel trained in X-ray crystallography and structure-based drug design at the University of South Florida, then expanded into cryo-EM during his postdoctoral work in Daniela Rhodes’ lab in Singapore, gaining expertise in SPA, sample preparation, and microscope operation. His work focuses on practical, reproducible automation approaches that help facilities streamline data collection and increase overall productivity.
Microscopy Outreach
Tracey Stewart
Tracey Stewart is a senior microscopy professional and Light and Electron Microscopy Manager at Iowa State University’s Roy J. Carver High Resolution Microscopy Facility, where she has supported interdisciplinary research for nearly three decades. She specializes in advanced light, transmission, and scanning electron microscopy, experimental design, and scientific problem-solving across the life and material sciences. As a core facility leader, Tracey collaborates closely with faculty, students, and industry partners to design innovative imaging strategies, deliver high-quality data, and train hundreds of users annually on state-of-the-art instrumentation. Her work includes managing complex microscopy platforms, overseeing facility operations and staff, contributing to major instrumentation grants, and ensuring peak performance of cutting-edge research infrastructure. Tracey holds an M.S. in Veterinary Anatomy and a B.S. in Zoology and Genetics from Iowa State University. She is a certified Biological Electron Microscopy Technologist and an active member of the Microscopy Society of America, where she serves on the Certification Board and the Tech Forum Governance Board. Her career is marked by sustained service excellence, mentorship, and a commitment to advancing scientific discovery through microscopy.
Microscopy Outreach
Lisa Sheirer is a visual artist living and working in Frederick, Maryland. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking from West Virginia University and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Notre Dame. She has maintained a sustained artistic practice for more than five decades. Sheirer is an artist-in-residence at the Y Art Center in downtown Frederick, Maryland, where she maintains her studio. She is also Professor Emeritus at Frederick Community College, where she served for 23 years as program manager for Computer Graphics and Photography.
Her work spans a wide range of materials and processes, including pixels, clay, ink, paint, pulp painting, wood, glass, and sound. For the past 25 years, her artistic focus has centered on the non-human world. Rocks, trees, air, water, soil, flora, fauna, and mycoflora are closely observed, researched, and translated into visual form. Grounded in direct experience of place, her work draws from long-term observation within the Catoctin Mountains and the Potomac River watershed.
Sheirer documents these environments through photography, microscopy, and citizen science, transforming collected observations into artworks that reflect ecological interconnection and celebrate wild places. In the fall of 2023, she self-published two artist books, WaterShed and A Book of Ghosts, with support from a Frederick Arts Council grant.