his story is the second in a series dedicated to the University of New Brunswick's role in furthering Canada's defence capabilities. UNB is a national leader in defence-aligned research, helping protect Canadians and strengthen sovereignty through applied innovation, trusted partnerships, and made-in-Canada expertise. UNB advances cutting-edge research and develops the talent and technologies that support Canada's military, governments, critical infrastructure, and citizens.
For 60 years, UNB's Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility has helped researchers and industry examine the materials behind advanced manufacturing, nuclear energy, critical minerals, and other technologies necessary for Canada's sovereignty and national defence.
A 3D-printed metal part may have unseen flaws. A nuclear reactor component may fail if exposed to years of heat, pressure, and corrosion. A rock sample may contain critical minerals needed for Canada's supply chains.
Researchers developing technologies tied to Canada's defence, energy security, and resource sovereignty face a common challenge. They need to understand materials at scales invisible to the human eye.
"Without this characterization, you don't know what you have," said Dr. Christopher McFarlane, Department Chair and a professor in the UNB Department of Earth Sciences, whose work relies on detailed analysis of rock and mineral samples, which are increasingly important for manufacturing, electronics, energy systems, and other defence and civilian applications.
"If you don't know what you have, you won't achieve resource sovereignty."
Dr. Mohsen Mohammadi, a UNB professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Marine Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, works with partners developing metal components through additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D metal printing.
Applications include marine systems such as those used by naval forces, and energy infrastructure. Creating the component is only part of the challenge.
"The defence industry comes to us for the best possible situation for a material, an alloy, or a microstructure. After your 3D print, you must look inside that material at the micro- and nano-scale," Mohammadi said.
"For that, you have to do advanced electron microscopy characterization."
This is the work of the University of New Brunswick's Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (MMF), celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.
"We always go to the MMF to get these answers," said Mohammadi.
Seeing the unseen
The MMF is the only facility of its kind in New Brunswick. Since it started digital record-keeping in 2006, it has served more than 1,250 unique UNB users and more than 50 external clients each year, and the numbers continue to grow.
"We've been around for 60 years, and we have always played a significant role," said Nhu P. V. Trieu, the MMF's Acting Director.
"The unique thing is that we're a truly interdisciplinary facility with staff who are also subject matter experts in their respective fields, such as mineralogy, engineering, chemistry, or biology," said Trieu.
The MMF's instruments allow the examination of materials at microscopic and nanoscopic scales.
Microscopy is the technique of using microscopes to examine objects too small to be seen with the unaided eye.
Microanalysis is the quantitative or qualitative chemical identification of very small volumes of material.
These allow material characterization, a detailed study of what a material contains and how it behaves. It helps determine how materials are structured, how they change over time, and why they succeed or fail under real-world conditions. The answers can matter for both defence and civilian applications.
"Material characterization allows you to collect additional information that you cannot see, both from the visual-spatial structuring perspective and from the elemental perspective," Trieu said.
"Those characteristics can often be the defining factor in whether or not a technology, whether it is defence or not, continues to proceed."
Sovereignty in energy
Energy is also important to Canada's sovereignty, and researchers studying advanced nuclear systems are among those using the facility's capabilities.
Dr. Olga Palazhchenko, a professor of Chemical Engineering, Director of Canada's Life Cycle for Existing and Advanced Nuclear (CLEAN) CREATE program, and a researcher with the UNB's Centre for Nuclear Energy Research (CNER), examines how materials perform under conditions such as heat, pressure, corrosion, and long-term service. Her work supports research on both existing reactors and emerging reactor technologies.
"Understanding microstructures and how service conditions can affect these is essential to ensuring reliability and long-term safe operation of equipment," Palazhchenko said.
Anjali Sankar is a research scientist at the CNER. Her work includes assessing the mechanical integrity of specialty steels for high temperature applications. She uses the MMF to investigate microstructural changes within these materials prior and after experimental testing.
"We get to see the direct effects of these test conditions on the microstructure, which affects the material's overall mechanical performance," she said.
"We can also perform elemental mapping on samples to confirm the material's composition prior to conducting experimental work, such as heat treatments or destructive testing. This is used as a baseline for any subsequent changes in the material."
The people behind the equipment
Researchers say one of the facility's greatest strengths is not just the equipment itself, but the expertise that accompanies it.
Over six decades, the MMF has become a source of technical knowledge and experience, helping researchers design experiments, prepare samples, interpret results, solve problems, and connect with potential partners.
Dr. Barry Blight, Assistant Dean of Science and a professor at the UNB Department of Chemistry, looks for new ways to transform waste into useful materials and to produce sustainable fuels. His Blight Chemistry Group also works with luminescent materials and porous solids, trying to combine biological structures with inorganic materials.
He says that defence research goes well beyond ships and aircraft. It also includes new battery materials, durable military fabrics and textiles, additives, and even medications, since the way a pill is compacted affects how quickly the body absorbs it. The MMF can evaluate all of these.
"The reality is that many of the materials that are being brought through the MMF have never been made before, or have never been analyzed in this way before," Blight said. "They are a very knowledgeable group."
Training the next generation
The MMF is also a training ground for students.
Many facilities limit direct access to specialized instruments. At the MMF, students gain hands-on experience preparing samples, operating equipment, and analyzing results. That experience helps prepare graduates for careers in industry, government, and research.
"The hands-on experience of actually preparing your samples instead of handing your samples to someone else to prepare, of actually being on the machine instead of just receiving data back, lends itself to the workforce," Trieu said.
McFarlane said the facility's culture is one reason students and researchers benefit from working there. Unlike some specialized facilities where access is tightly controlled, the MMF encourages students to learn through direct experience.
"MMF has an open-door policy," McFarlane said. "If you've got a problem, you talk to people, figure it out, and just get it done. That isn't how every facility like this operates. There's no hierarchy here of who gets what and when. Trainees find this very valuable."
Having access to the MMF locally allows researchers to move projects forward more quickly and at lower cost, said Palazhchenko.
Sending samples to facilities elsewhere in Canada can add higher costs and delays to researchers who must watch their budgets closely.
"The cost adds up quickly," Palazhchenko said. "It's a considerable time and cost savings to use an internal university rate."
A role in Canada's future
As Canada looks to strengthen domestic capability in fields ranging from advanced manufacturing and energy security to critical minerals and defence-related applications, facilities such as the MMF provide researchers, industry, and government with tools and expertise that would otherwise be difficult and costly to access.
Its impact extends across many research efforts shaping Canada's future.
"The MMF's role is to bring people together, amplify research capacity, and help advance the technologies Canada will need in the future," said Trieu.
"That has been our major strength over the past 60 years."
