James Hillier, Canadian-American scientist, co-designed the electron microscope (died 2007)

James Hillier, was a Canadian-American scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938.

An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing it to produce magnified images or electron diffraction patterns. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times smaller than that of visible light, electron microscopes have a much higher resolution of about 0.1 nm, which compares to about 200 nm for light microscopes. Electron microscope may refer to:

• Transmission electron microscope (TEM) where swift electrons go through a thin sample
• Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) which is similar to TEM with a scanned electron probe
• Scanning electron microscope (SEM) which is similar to STEM, but with thick samples
• Electron microprobe similar to a SEM, but more for chemical analysis
• Low-energy electron microscope (LEEM), used to image surfaces
• Photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) which is similar to LEEM using electrons emitted from surfaces by photons