July 1997 REPORT FOR

W. CHARLES SYMONS, III

As mentioned in the two previous reports, both a computerized laser dermatome grant as well as a nanopositioning NSOM stage grant were recently submitted. It has been learned that both of these internal grants have been funded. Another piece of new information that was recently learned is that an invited presentation has been requested for the Eastern Analytical Symposium on November 18, 1997. In conjunction with this invitation, an abstract will be submitted by July 20, 1997.

In addition to this new information, June was primarily spent updating the main Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) computer. The computer received both a larger harddrive for storing data as well as a faster processor in order to efficiently run Windows 95. Once this hardware was installed, it was found that the current data collection program needed to be updated to address timing issues due to both the faster processor as well as the faster disk drive. The NSOM computer upgrade is currently taking place in anticipation of a new tuneable laser diode source which is currently back ordered as well as the new nanopositioning stage which will be ordered within the next couple of weeks.