Dick Paden recently returned to Hymers College for the OH March lunch and to deliver a talk to the Sixth Form physics groups.  He has been working in electron microscopy for 60 years and been involved in scanning electron microscopy (SEM), in particular from its very earliest days of research and commercialisation.  Dick was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Microscopical Society for services rendered to the field.

I completed my PhD in Microscopy in 1967 designing a microscope and joined Cambridge Scientific Instruments, eventually becoming Chief Engineer in R & D for all the SEM and its accessories.

I had a short spell away working at EMI, involved in CT scanners for hospitals which they had just launched for brain scanning but then returned to Scanning Microscopy to work in a new company for the rest of my career, eventually being the CEO of that company.  My role was not only being Technical Director but also CEO, so  I saw all aspects of the business and I have been very lucky to have a lifetime doing something I always enjoyed.

I have seen the products applied in many different uses including electron beam fabrication of chips, forensic applications, crystallography, cryo microscopy as well as the myriad of analytical and imaging uses to which the SEM is now applied.

The presentation he delivered included:

• Its a Small World (his lifetime and career of involvement in microscopy from a personal standpoint)
• History of the Stereoscan (this was the first commercial SEM in the world from Cambridge Scientific Instrument and had its 50th Anniversary Celebration event in 2015)
• Cambridge Scientific Instruments History and Legacy, covering the founding of the Company by Horace Darwin (one of Charles’ sons) right the way through to the late 70's including the Stereoscan  SEM)
• An overview of Forensic Applications of the SEM (a take on the various applications of forensic users – Gunshot of firearms residue analysis, glass and paint fragments etc.)

Thanks for coming to see us, Dick. It was a pleasure to have you back with us.