Workshop: Microscope Cleaning, Maintenance, and Adjustment

Thursday, June 15 and Friday, June 16, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
McCrone Laboratories and Classrooms, Chicago

Tuition is $550, class size is limited. Workshop attendees must also register for at least one day of presentations. Register and pay securely online or complete the fillable PDF attendee registration form for fax or snail mail.

Taught by Sebastian B. Sparenga

This two-day, hands-on Inter/Micro workshop will introduce the microscopist to the routine — and not-so-routine — cleaning, maintenance, and mechanical adjustments required to keep monocular, binocular, compound, stereo, polarized, phase contrast, and other light microscopes operating like new.

Attendees will be introduced to basic microscope functionality, the various methods and schools of thought on lens and parts cleaning, lubrication, optics, image formation, and how to adjust for proper illumination, including a variety of “tricks of the trade” gleaned from microscope publications and previous experience teaching these methods to hundreds of students. Attendees will learn how to use a variety of tools and accessories needed for routine cleaning and maintenance and will be provided with a kit they can take with them at the conclusion of the course.

Students will gain a working knowledge of microscope disassembly, assembly, cleaning, lubrication, and basic operations through a series of lectures and demonstrations of each cleaning and maintenance technique. Laboratory exercises will give students the opportunity to practice on a variety of microscopes with instructor guidance.

Sebastian B. Sparenga is Senior Research Microscopist and Instructor at McCrone Research Institute in Chicago. He holds a M.S. in Forensic Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been conducting research and teaching microscopical identification and microanalytical techniques to students from the environmental, industrial, and forensic science communities since 2004.