About us

Based on an agreement signed in late 2002 by the Departements Biology and Physics, this center provides research facilities and scientific and technical support in electron microscopy to presently forty-five members (departments, laboratories) that contribute substantially to the operation of the center. Excellent research tools combined with the exchange of scientific and technical skills offer a favorable environment for advanced studies in the field of electron microscopy.

How to approach EMEZ?

EMEZ encourages interested scientific researchers to use the powerful capabilities of this facility by submitting a formal service/project proposal.If you would like to do your own analysis at EMEZ, please find out more how to become an EMEZ Operator below. Service is typically work which depends on dedicated expertise and which EMEZ staff members can finish within 1-2 days (SEM) or 2-3 days (TEM) of workload. We regard everything, which takes more time as a project.
Once you have approached EMEZ with your proposal, you get a first contact either by the Steering Committee or by a member of the team after the next Steering Committee meeting (every Monday morning). For services you can expect to get first results in a period of three weeks while projects are handled individually upon their specific needs and in close exchange with the applicant.

Who can use EMEZ?

In order to use the resources in EMEZ you must be a member of the ETH community and provide us with a full application form.
Non-ETH researchers may access EMEZ, please contact the EMEZ Director at roger.wepf@emez.ethz.ch or +41 44 633 4558 for information regarding availability and pricing.

Staff hours

The EMEZ staff is available to answer your questions and help you with problems Monday - Friday, 08:00 to 19:00.
EMEZ phone numbers
or office: +41 44 633 4558/ 4559

Fees for electron microscope use and EM services

Fees for training and individual use of sample preparation equipment, electron microscopes and computers as well as a list of available electron microscopy services can be found on the EMEZ services and pricing page.
Rates valid for members of the ETH and academia community as well as for external users are given in the list. For heavy and long term users we recommend applying for a membership at EMEZ and taking advantage of a subsidized price in form of an annual member fee.

How to become an EMEZ User/Operator?

1) Submit project proposal.
2) Before you or we begin with your work.
3) Instrument qualification.
4) Accessing facilities and running experiments.

How to become an EMEZ Member?

(Under construction….for the moment please consult the head of EMEZ or the EMEZ by-law)

Credit to EMEZ

All published work resulting from use of the EMEZ facility must include an acknowledgement to EMEZ and ETH Zurich (e.g.: The authors acknowledge support by the Electron Microscopy of ETH Zurich (EMEZ)) - authors are also welcome to single out and mention support staff for their help or include EMEZ staff to the authors list on a paper.
 All published work resulting from use of EMEZ must be added to the EMEZ publication database!

How to become an EMEZ User/Operator in more detail

Step 1 : Submit a project proposal.

Access to the EMEZ facilities is granted to ETH members and other researchers whose proposal is accepted by the EMEZ Steering Committee. The EMEZ Steering Committee decides if the request is a service or a project depending on the actual availability of resources. The proposal should include evidence of prior microscopy or electron microscopy experience by the intended operator. If the applicant does not have sufficient expertise in electron microscopy it is possible to access EMEZ through a service project, collaborative project or by learning the essential techniques in the instrument qualification program.

Proposals are evaluated according the following criteria:

i. Are the scientific goals of the proposal worthy to study by electron microscopy and is electron microscopy the appropriate technique to reach the scientific goals?
ii. Which technique or equipment is suitable to reach the goals?
iii. Does the primary researcher have the required expertise to achieve the goals or does he need extra teaching?
iv. Are the resources at EMEZ available to support the work or to run the service?

If you have questions about technical aspects of your proposal please contact for SEM: karsten.kunze@emez.ethz.ch / roger.wepf@emez.ethz.ch or for TEM: elisabeth.mueller@emez.ethz.ch / roger.wepf@emez.ethz.ch

Once your proposal is accepted by the Steering Committee (regular evaluation each Monday morning) you will get within 7 days a feedback which staff member is in charge of your application.

Step 2 : Before you or we begin with your work

Upon approval of your proposal, you should give us the following information:
1) complete the chemical safety forms if needed (supported by EMEZ staff)
2) complete all required safety trainings as specified by the ETH safety regulations
3) attend the next user safety training (announced on our home-page)

Step 3 : Instrument qualification

After completion of the required safety issues, a new user may be contacted by the staff or should contact the staff member in charge of his proposal and arrange for the necessary instrument teaching or qualification sessions. Instrument instruction will include sample preparation and demonstration of the specific instrument characteristics needed on a one-by-one training base. After sufficient instruction and individual training each user must take a “driving test” on the instrument to become a qualified user (drivers license). There are different levels of access for each instrument, which may include specific subcomponents or options. In addition you can also get to a level for usage permission over night and weekend for the instrument you are trained on.

Step 4 : Accessing facilities and running experiments

Instrument scheduling can be accessed online. Online scheduling for 14 days in advance are possible, giving the staff enough time to plan training and service work. A normal instrument session lasts up to 6 hours depending on the instrument, in special circumstances such as cryo-EM work you may block the instrument for a whole day exceptionally. If you need to schedule an instrument session for longer than 6 hours please contact the staff member in charge of the specific instrument. For off hour work or weekend work you must apply by filling out the Off-Hours Access Application.
Each instrument has sign-up rules and scheduled sessions as appropriate for that instrument.