On September 19, Gatan was deeply saddened
to learn of the passing of Dr. Reza
Alani. An employee of Gatan since May
of 1986, Reza was immensely respected
by Gatan and the Microscopy community
as a whole.
Reza was born in 1949 in Tehran, Iran
and lived there until he graduated from
college. Reza obtained his Ph.D. at
the University of London, Imperial College
in 1978. He helped develop the TEM environmental
cell and made the first in situ
HVEM observations of stress corrosion
crack nucleation and growth in high
strength aluminum alloys. He loved the
challenge of making TEM specimens of
difficult materials and astonished his
colleagues with his "impossible"
TEM micrographs of cross sections through
the surface of galvanized steel.
Reza contributed greatly to the success
story of Gatan's Specimen Preparation
and TEM Holder product lines. A true
expert in the field, Reza authored nearly
100 articles on various topics in Materials
Science. There are 4 patents which exist
under his name.
Above all else, Reza was a real gentleman
and a true professional in everything
he did. He is survived by his wife and
two sons. Reza will be sadly missed
by his family, colleagues at Gatan,
and his many friends in the scientific
world.
