GRAND ARM2 inauguration in Trondheim
News
As a part of the large-scale infrastructure project NORTEM II, funded by the Research Council of Norway, a new JEOL JEM-ARM300F2 “GRAND ARM2” has been installed at NTNU in Trondheim. The Norwegian Centre for Transmission Electron Microscopy (NORTEM) is a nationally coordinated initiative by the two leading Norwegian TEM groups in Norway, at UiO and at NTNU and with three partners: SINTEF, NTNU and UiO.
In this connection, an inauguration to officially open the new instrument–was organized at NTNU in Trondheim 2-3 December 2025, including a lunch-to-lunch seminar with international renowned speakers, presenting possibilities and results from modern transmission electron microscopy (TEM) research. More than 100 participants joined the official opening of the JEOL JEM-ARM300F2 “Grand ARM” transmission electron microscope (TEM). Greetings were given by NTNU Rector Tor Grande, SINTEF CEO Alexandra Bech Gjørv, Mats Bergius (JEOL), and Trond Furu (Hydro). Professor Randi Holmestad, as the leader of the NORTEM Trondheim node, and a key person in SFI PhysMet, introduced the TEM Gemini Centre, the national NORTEM consortium (NTNU, SINTEF, UiO), and the history of TEM in Trondheim.
The inauguration was followed by a scientific seminar featuring internationally renowned experts presenting cutting-edge TEM research and technique development. Talks highlighted TEM’s role in alloy design, battery technology, and biological systems, as well as advances in instrumentation such as new lenses, monochromators, and correlative approaches combining TEM with atom probe tomography.
The new TEM instrument will clearly be an asset also for SFI PhysMet enabling the possibility to dive even deeper into the ‘atom scale world’ and of aluminium alloys, as well as other materials we investigate within the SFI, in our endeavour to make stronger, more durable and ‘greener’ materials and material solutions, in close collaboration with our partners and Norwegian metal-based industry.
