Note: MNT-EC recently teamed up with Wingspans, an exciting new career platform, to connect with more community college technician programs. Links and more info below.
Embark on a microscopic journey with Matt Feyerheisen, a Field Engineer at Nanoscience Instruments, where the unseen becomes seen through the lens of Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEMs).
With a background spanning from visual communication to microelectronics, Matt’s role is pivotal in examining the elemental composition of materials down to the electron level. SEMs, capable of magnifying objects a million times, are instrumental in industries from pharmaceuticals to aerospace, ensuring the integrity of products that shape our daily lives.
Matt highlights the diversity of applications: “You can’t really see the details of what I do because they’re so small… a human hair is 70 microns wide… One micron is a millionth of a meter.” His work ensures that the gap between contacts in computers is sufficient to prevent short circuits, a critical aspect of our digital world.
The job isn’t just about magnification; it’s about precision and problem-solving. Matt shares an anecdote: “There was one client where we had to take their machine in because there was a problem… it looked like a piano wire was wound around some type of pedestal.” It’s this meticulous attention to detail that ensures the reliability of equipment used in critical research and development across various sectors.
For potential students and enthusiasts, Matt’s journey is a testament to the ever-evolving field of nanotechnology, where learning never ceases, and every tiny detail can lead to a giant leap in innovation. His story is a compelling invitation to explore a world where the smallest elements make the biggest impact.
Matt earned a certificate through Rio Salado, an MNT-EC Partner, and his full profile is highlighted on the Wingspans website for any of our community to read or listen to the audio MP3 file on site (click through just below Matt’s photo “Listen to Profile” on the Wingspans site).
Read the full post: Wingspans: Matt Feyerheisen
More on Wingspans from their website:
“Wingspans takes an immersive approach to career discovery just short of experiencing the job yourself. It’s an archive of authentic and heartfelt career stories—nothing scripted or sugar-coated. If you can see it, you can be it.“
–Wingspans website
The site has 700+ in-depth career stories, including 40+ mini-documentaries, that are integrated into over 10,000 pages on our site.
This is an early look at one of the community college posts via our brief summary, but we hope you go visit the public Wingspans page for the full and energizing story about Matt Feyerheisen here.
