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I N T E R V I E W W I T H D R . H I R O M I T S U F U R U K AWA

The interview was conducted as a part of discussions on organizing a workshop on three-dimensionalimaging at the National Institute for Nanotechnology in the spring of 2008. Stay tuned for the updates!

Dr. Hiromitsu Furukawa developed the electron tomography package for JEOL transmission electronmicroscopes (TEMs). His company recently introduced a MATLAB scripting package for JEOL TEMs. Moreinformation on Dr. Furukawa can be found at www.temography.com.

Marek Malac (MM): Many microscopists had achance to see your workshop at theMicroscopical Society of Canada/Société deMicroscopie du Canada (MSC/SMC) meeting inEdmonton in 2007. How did you like the meet-ing and what made you consider organizing suchhighly specialized workshop at a MSC/SMCmeeting?

Hiromitsu Furukawa (HF): I thought that the work-shop at MSC2007 was very exciting and worth-while. Recently, a lot of researchers are payingattention to the tomography technique. So, sucha workshop is inevitable. I admire the keen eye ofthe MSC/SMC organizers.

(MM): What lead you to become interested inTEM tomography? How long were you workingon electron tomography before the firstTEMography package was released?

(HF): In 1999 I obtained the budgetfrom the Japanese Government anddeveloped special hardware for high-speed operation. Furthermore, I wasinterested in computer tomography asan application that would prove theperformance of the hardware. Atonce, I noticed that this technique iseffective to TEM. Right after that Ijumped onto developing applicationsfor TEM. As you can see,TEMography was released in 2004.

(MM): Which applications do you seebenefiting from electron tomographymost strongly?

(HF): The application range of TEMography isvery wide. Actually, a lot of users are usingTEMography regardless of their field of applica-tion, whether biological or materials science. Iam presently especially interested in looking atpolymers and proteins in 3D.

(MM): What do you see as fundamental limits ofelectron tomography besides radiation damage?

(HF):The penetrating ability of the electron beamthrough samples is lower than that of X-rays.This is the most fundamental limit. Therefore,the limitation is caused by the thickness of thesample and the angle of tilting.

(MM): Which parameters or microscope setupaspects are most critical for successful electrontomography?

TEMography installation at NINT in the spring of 2007.From left: Marek Malac, Masa Kawasaki, Julie Qian, Hiromitsu Furukawa, MiokoShimizu and Brian Legge. JEOL 2200 FS at NINT in the background. The photowas taken at around 2 a.m.

(HF): The eucentric performance of the TEMspecimen stage is very important. A lot of con-sideration must also be given to specimen prepa-ration if the best 3D information is to obtained.

(MM): Do you anticipate the limits of electrontomography to extend to 3D chemical analysis atatomic resolution in the foreseeable future?

(HF): I know a lot of researchers are requestingthis capability. But, I think that it is a problemrelated to the basic observational principles ofTEM.

(MM): The fact that TEM in single-projectionexperiments is prone to misinterpretation sug-gests the use of tomography on a regular basis.Do you see electron tomography becoming aroutine technique used on regular basis on mostTEMs (even if over a limited tilt range) in a waysimilar to EDX spectroscopy?

(HF): I think that there is a limit to tomographyas a TEM technique, too. However, it is expectedthat the resolution of a 3D reconstructed imageshould be improved to better match the resolu-tion capabilities of a TEM. I am working withinour company with the hardware design people todevelop such a dream TEM.

(MM): I found your TEMography reconstructionpackage very convenient. The rumor is thatmicroscopists with non-JEOL microscopes liketo use your reconstruction software package ontheir data. Would you like to comment on thisrumor?

(HF): Thank you. I am glad to hear this rumor.TEMography can readily be used with all thestandard data formats (Include dm3, mrc, ...). Inaddition, the package is now available on ourwebsite, www.temography.com.

(MM): You have traveled to many countries topromote and install your products. If you weregoing to name two places that made the strongestimpressions, which ones would you select andwhy?

(HF): This may be the most difficult question inthis interview. The places that I have visited wereall impressive and I am very grateful thatcustomers from of all over the world ardentlywelcome TEMography.

(MM): Your work includes a significant amount oftravel. What do you like most about traveling?What do you dislike most about traveling?

(HF): I love traveling and I am very interested inexperiencing different cultures and admiringbeautiful scenery. However, I cannot go to myoffice often and so I miss the time to work withmy staff.

(MM): What is your favorite object for photogra-phy and what is your favorite film camera? Doyou prefer using film or digital cameras for yourphotos?

(HF): It is my great pleasure to take photographswith my classic film cameras when I go to smalltowns in the world. This makes me feel like a boy,full of imagination and creativity.

(MM): What are your favorite movie and music?What sports do you like?

(HF): I love animation movies. My staff calls me“OTAKAU”. I enjoyed skiing, riding a bicycleand motor car racing when I was young. I wish Ihad enough time for sports but I usually walkabout 10 km or sometimes more all day longwhen I am taking snap shots.

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