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microscopist

microscopist

1 8.1
A scientist who studies tiny things using a microscope
  • noun
  • /ˌmaɪkrəˈskɒpɪst/
  • Specialized
: microscopista
  • After years of research, the microscopist published groundbreaking findings on bacterial behavior.

Examples

  • The team's more recent studies have gone high-tech and multidisciplinary, including input from microscopists and acoustical engineers.

    Academic text (2008)
  • When Ris, an excellent electron microscopist, revived the symbiogenetic theory, the close resemblance in membrane organization of chloroplasts and cyanobacteria impressed him as much as that of their DNA.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Many of the samples of interest to electron microscopists yield only phase information.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The transformations of animals reported by the leading microscopists of his time played a similar role in his later thought.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Readings used for data analyses were done within 48 hours by skilled microscopists who were unaware of the patient's clinical status and treatment group.

    Academic text (2002)
  • He had stumbled upon a note from the pioneering Dutch microscopist Leeuwenhoek.

    Academic text (2010)
  • Any discrepancies (positive vs negative, results that would change outcome classification, more than 25% difference in parasite density) were resolved by a third microscopist.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Equipped with the containers, a researcher would be able to visit a site, collect snow crystal samples from a snowpit, and preserve them using techniques developed by the two microscopists.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Developments in computer control suggest that fully automatic instruments with built-in simulation and image interpretation could eventually lead to a much wider and more robust accessibility of the technique to non-expert microscopists.

    Academic text (1997)
  • As a microscopist, she studied tiny organisms that are invisible to the naked eye.

Surface Forms

microscopist singular
microscopists plural

Morphology

microscopist = microscope (transparent) = micro + scope + ist

This is a regular agent noun built from 'microscope' plus '-ist', so the meaning is straightforward for a learner who knows the base word.

Etymology

Microscopist has clear parts: micro- 'small' and -scope 'to look', just like in microscope. The ending -ist means 'person who does something', so a microscopist is a person who looks at very small things with a microscope.