2000

JEOL 3000F field-emission-gun TEM installed; Leica TCS SP2 multiphoton confocal microscope installed.

2000

Schools outreach program Microscopes on the Move was officially launched by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki at National Science Week. The program received an honourable mention for Outstanding Achievement in Collaboration in Education and Training in the BHERT awards for 2000.

2001

Associate Professor Simon P. Ringer appointed as Director of the EMU and Key Centre.

2002

NANO-MNRF (Nanostructural Analysis Network Organisation Major National Research Facility) established by the Department of Education, Science and Training; NANO is headquartered in the Key Centre.

2003

Skyscan 1072 micro-computed tomography platform installed.

2003

Major renovations of many existing and some new spaces in the Madsen Building to accommodate new staff and researchers – including those from the NANO-MNRF – various new instruments, and a new cell-culture laboratory.

2003

Launch of NANO-MNRF Annual Report by Senator John Tierney.

2003

EMU starts charging users for access to instruments.

2003

EMU goes to online booking system.

2004

Imago LEAP 3000 local-electrode atom probe installed.

2004

First PhD students able to be enrolled in Key Centre, through the Faculty of Science.

2004

Second Japan-Australia Workshop on Advanced Materials between the University of Sydney and Tohoku University, Japan, organised by the Key Centre. As part of this workshop, Professor Heinrich Rohrer (1986 Physics Nobel Laureate) gave a NANO Distinguished Lecture, "The Power and Magic of Small."

2005

Key Centre established as the University of Sydney's node of the new ARC Centre of Excellence in Design in Light Metals.

2006

NANO's nodes in NSW (the Key Centre and the EMU at UNSW) organised ACMM19, the 19th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis, which was held at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

2006

First "Key Centre" PhD awarded.

2006

FEI Quanta 3D installed (focussed ion beam and environmental SEM).

2006

First EMU Future Focus Day – a planning day for the entire unit.

2007

Establishment of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility, successor to the NANO-MNRF, still headquartered in the Key Centre.

2007

Imago LEAP 3000X Si laser-assisted local-electrode atom probe installed.

2008

50th anniversary of establishment of the Electron Microscope Unit.