To schedule an instrument at either the Oakland or Shadyside location, use our online scheduler.
Equipment may be scheduled online one month in advance, for a maximum of three hours at a time, up to three times per week during regular business days. Use of the facility outside normal business hours is limited to those users fully trained in instrument use. To gain security access to the unit through ID card permissions, contact the CTIF Director. Off-peak reservations (weekdays after 6 pm and before 8 am, and all weekend) can also be scheduled online, and do not count against the weekly use limits (3 slots of 3 hours). However, users are limited to two off-peak sessions during the week or one over the weekend.
If the user is more than ten minutes late for a reserved session, it is forfeited. All unreserved time is available on an ad hoc basis.
Funded investigators take priority over unfunded investigators who are developing preliminary data for grant submission, and Hillman users take priority over non-Hillman users. Beyond this, however, our prime goal is to provide scientists with microscope resources and time to perform investigations as easily and quickly as possible. Thus, experiments which can be completed in the three-hour reservation block or less will take priority over a user who wishes to book two daytime periods in sequence, to complete a single, longer experiment. In this case, the second user will be asked to take an afternoon/evening session to maximize the number of users who can use the microscope.
CTIF Director
Simon Watkins, PhD
Email: watkinssc@upmc.edu
