Lauren Mason – STROBE

How low can dose go? Applications in ultra low dose electron diffraction of molecular crystals.

Abstract: Electron diffraction enables atomic structure determination from nano- or microcrystals, allowing for rapid structural analysis of crystalline powders or mixtures. However, electron dose is fundamentally limiting, especially for the determination of solvated molecular structures. Crystals of hydrated molecules often require lengthy optimization of vitrification conditions, an approach challenged by non-aqueous solvents. I will discuss my group’s efforts to enable room-temperature electron diffraction of microcrystals suspended in solvent, using simple liquid cells composed of two TEM grids “sandwiched” together with a liquid layer in between. As room-temperature, hydrated microcrystals are particularly prone to electron beam radiation damage, we have also implemented new hardware and software measures to minimize the beam fluence delivered to each crystal. Those tactics enable study of molecular conformations only accessible in a room-temperature solvated state, which are otherwise inaccessible by MicroED, but can be of particular relevance for research and pharmaceuticals.

Speaker Bio: Jose Rodriguez is a true bruin, having completed his undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral training at UCLA. He is now a professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UCLA, where his group develops new structural biology and structural chemistry approaches, and applies them to pressing problems in biochemistry & adjacent fields.

UCLA Scientists Break Imaging Barrier to Unlock Secrets of Deadly “Chaotic” Viruses

The findings could pave the way to new treatments for some of our most lethal diseases. For years, graduate student Lily Taylor and her advisor, Professor Jose Rodriguez, have been working on something big: a novel technique that would finally allow scientists to look closely at some of the most “chaotic” viruses in the world. Now, in Taylor’s first published paper as first author, they have done it…

Congratulations to Gabriella (Gabi) Seifert for Receiving an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $37,000.

Congratulations to Benjamin Hammel for receiving Best Poster Award at the Mountain States Society of Electron Microscopists (MSSEM) Fall 2024 Conference.

Benjamin Hammel, a graduate student in Gordana Dukovic’s group at CU Boulder, received the Best Poster Award at the Mountain States Society of Electron Microscopists (MSSEM) Fall 2024 Conference. Congratulations, Ben!

Congratulations to Jianwei (John) Miao for Being Elected as a 2025 Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS)

Professor John (Jianwei) Miao at UCLA has been elected as a 2025 Fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS) for his research in pioneering coherent diffractive imaging for a wide range of material systems and atomic electron tomography for determining the three-dimensional atomic structure of crystal defects and amorphous materials. Congratulations, John!

Atomic imaging and AI offer new insights into motion of parasite behind sleeping sickness

UCLA discovery uncovers unique features that advance understanding of the microbe’s movement and infection. African sleeping sickness is a serious infection caused by a parasitic microbe called Trypanosoma brucei. Using an imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy along with artificial intelligence, a team at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA mapped the hairlike flagellum that the microbe uses to propel itself, identifying 154 composite proteins. Findings revealed that the parasite moves in a distinctive style, similar to a dragon boat, with unique adaptations that are essential to its ability to infect its hosts.

Attosecond FEL Physics Postdoc Opening at SLAC

SLAC national accelerator laboratory¿s FEL R&D group is looking to hire a postdoc/RA to join their attosecond science team. The attosecond science group develops new FEL capabilities and supports cutting-edge user experiments. Recent results include the measurement of sub-fs TW soft x-ray pulses and two-color attosecond-pump/attosecond-probe experiments.

The attosecond science team is looking for an ambitious candidate to help develop attosecond metrology in order to study and exploit the unique properties of the single-spike FEL. This is an interdisciplinary role, mixing accelerator physics with attosecond science, and we welcome candidates from either background. This position is an opportunity to study both fundamental FEL physics and to build tools in service to the lab. The successful candidate will gain exposure to the cutting edge LCLS soft x-ray attosecond program and build a platform to launch their own research.

The role is centered on a project to build an attosecond streaking diagnostic in which the x-ray pulse excites photoelectrons into the strong space-charge field of the electron beam. Photoelectrons emitted earlier will be experience more acceleration, creating and energy-to-time map which can be used to decode the attosecond pulse structure and measure the mutual coherence between the electron beam and x-rays.

SLAC is one of the world¿s premier research laboratories, with capabilities in photon science, accelerator physics, high energy physics, and energy sciences. More information can be found on SLAC¿s website: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/, https://accelerators.slac.stanford.edu/research.

More info on the job website: https://tinyurl.com/SlacJobListingAttosecondFel

Postdoctoral Researcher Position in Fiber Lasers and Frequency Combs University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

The Quantum Light-Matter Cooperative (QLMC) is seeking a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral researcher (or postdoc-equivalent) to join our team at UCLA. The successful candidate will work on cutting-edge research involving advanced photonic
systems, with a focus on fiber lasers, frequency combs, and their applications in precision measurement and quantum technologies.

Key Responsibilities:
• Design, develop, and optimize fiber-based and solid-state laser systems.
• Investigate and implement frequency comb generation and stabilization techniques.
• Explore novel approaches for low phase-noise density performance and carrier-envelope phase (CEP) locking in multi-channel systems.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to advance the state-of-the-art in photonic entanglement and quantum state manipulation.
• Publish research findings in high-impact journals and present at leading conferences.

Required Qualifications:
• Ph.D. in Physics, Electrical Engineering, Optics, or a related field.
• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.
• Expertise in fiber lasers, frequency combs, and nonlinear optics.
• Strong experimental skills in photonics, including experience with laser stabilization, phase noise characterization, and quantum state manipulation.
• Familiarity with integrated photonic platforms and hybrid photonic systems is a plus.
• Proficiency in data analysis and computational tools for modeling photonic systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

See attachment for more information.

An ultrafast microscope makes movies one femtosecond at a time

New CU Boulder research harnesses the power of an ultrafast microscope to study molecular movement in space and time.

The interactions in photovoltaic materials that convert light into electricity happens in femtoseconds. How fast is that? One femtosecond is a quadrillionth of a second. To put that in perspective, the difference between a second and a femtosecond is comparable to the difference between the second right now and 32 million years ago.

Subatomic particles like electrons move within atoms, and atoms move within molecules, in femtoseconds. This speed has long presented challenges for researchers working to make more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable photovoltaic materials, including solar cells. Imaging materials on the nanoscale with high enough spatial resolution to uncover the fundamental physical processes poses an additional challenge.

Understanding how, where and when electrons move, and how their movement depends on the molecular structure of these materials, is key to honing them or developing better ones.

Ultrafast nano-imaging of structure and dynamics in a perovskite quantum material also used for photovoltaic applications. Different femtosecond laser pulses are used to excite and measure the material. They are focused to the nanoscale with an ultrasharp metallic tip. The photo-excited electrons and coupled changes of the lattice structure (so called polarons, red ellipses) are diagnosed spectroscopically with simultaneous ultrahigh spatial and temporal resolution. (Illustration: Branden Esses)

Building on more than five years of research developing a unique ultrafast microscope that can make real-time “movies” of electron and molecular motion in materials, a team of University of Colorado Boulder scientists published in Science Advances the results of significant innovations in ultrafast nanoimaging, visualizing matter at its elementary atomic and molecular level.

The research team, led by Markus Raschke, professor of physics and JILA fellow, applied the ultrafast nanoimaging techniques they developed to novel perovskite materials. Perovskites are a family of organic-inorganic hybrid materials that are efficient at converting light to electricity, generally stable and relatively easy to make…

Congratulations to Anya Grafov for Receiving First Place for Lightning Talk at the MMM-Intermag Conference 2025

Anya Grafov, a graduate student in Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn’s research group, received first place for her Lightning Talk titled “Measuring Magnetic Dynamics with Extreme Ultraviolet Light” at the Joint MMM-Intermag Conference in 2025. Congratulations, Anya!

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About Lauren Mason