DALIA G. YABLON, PhD, developed and led a state-of-the-art scanning probe microscopy facility for more than ten years in Corporate Strategic Research, the flagship R&D center of ExxonMobil Corporation. Under her direction, scanning probe microscopy was used to characterize, conduct failure analysis, and probe structure-property relationships across all sectors of the vast petroleum business including areas of polymers, tribology, corrosion, geochemistry, and metallurgy. She currently leads SurfaceChar, a characterization consulting company.