Lauren Mason – STROBE

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!

Revolutionizing microscopy: 25 years of computational imaging breakthroughs

UCLA physicist John Miao pioneered a new form of microscopy with unprecedented precision and field of view. In 1999, then-graduate student Jianwei “John” Miao and his colleagues at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, demonstrated that a computational algorithm, combined with patterns of scattered photons, could reveal miniscule details previously impossible to capture with conventional microscopes.

Building on an established method for determining atomic structures called X-ray crystallography, they expanded its application to structures that lack the uniform, repeating patterns found in crystals. The algorithm reconstructs images from diffraction patterns — the arrangement of electromagnetic beams after they are bent and scattered as they pass through samples. This technique diverges from traditional microscopy by combining diffraction and computation to effectively replace the objective lens.

If you imagine microscopes as computer hardware, Miao’s approach is the “killer app” that unlocks their full potential. Over the past 25 years, scientists have integrated this approach into different types of microscopes, driving the field of computational microscopy to achieve unparalleled resolution and precision, and to capture the broadest fields of view yet on samples under investigation. These advances have led to brand-new insights into the structure and behavior of catalysts, superconductors, computer chips and next-generation batteries and materials…

Congratulations to Iona Binnie for Receiving Best Poster Award at the MMM-Intermag Conference 2025

Graduate Student Iona Binnie has received the Best Poster Award for her poster titled “Enhanced High Harmonic Generation Beamline for Ultrafast Resonant Magnetic Scattering” at the 2025 Joint MMM-Intermag Conference in New Orleans. Congratulations, Iona!

Congratulations to Franklin Dollar for Receiving the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)

Today, President Biden awarded nearly 400 scientists and engineers the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.

Established by President Clinton in 1996, PECASE recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers. The award recognizes innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, expands awareness of careers in science and engineering, recognizes the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhances connections between research and impacts on society, and highlights the importance of science and technology for our nation’s future.

From Day One of his Administration, President Biden has recognized the important role that science and technology plays in creating a better society. He made historic progress, increasing federally funded research and development and deploying past research and development at an unprecedented scale through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.

This year’s awardees are employed or funded by 14 participating agencies within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Congratulations to Clay Klein for Receiving the 2025 Nick Cobb Memorial Scholarship from SPIE

STROBE and JILA graduate student Clay Klein has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Nick Cobb Memorial Scholarship, presented by SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, and Siemens EDA. The scholarship, valued at $10,000, recognizes Klein’s outstanding contributions to the field of optics and photonics.

“I am honored to be awarded the Nick Cobb Memorial Scholarship,” Klein stated. “This scholarship provides me with the exciting opportunity to share my research in this field and connect with others in the industry at the SPIE conference in February.”

Klein conducts research in the laboratories of JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn. His work focuses on cutting-edge advancements in nanoscale extreme ultraviolet imaging science.

The award will be formally presented during the Welcome and Plenary Presentation at the SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning Conference in San Jose, California, on February 24, 2025. Congratulations Clay!

Postdoctoral Research Associate – An advanced X-ray characterization technique for angstrom era semiconductor patterning

The NSLS-II is seeking an exceptional Postdoctoral Research Associate to join a co-design research effort that aims at advancing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) nanofabrication well beyond the conventional lithography approaches, taking advantage of the world-leading expertise in X-ray metrology at NSLS-II, nanofabrication at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), and machine learning (ML) at the Computational Science Initiative (CSI).

The selected candidate will collaborate with scientists at CFN and CSI to optimize the EUVL performance through rigorous simulations as well as machine-learning networks that account for the light-matter interactions in various wavelength regimes, and real light source parameters such as coherence, polarization, monochromaticity, and flux uniformity. The candidate is also expected to conduct x-ray characterizations at beamlines, using state-of-the-art microscopy techniques like coherent scattering and ptychographic imaging. The candidate will actively collaborate with researchers at external facilities such as the Advanced Light Source of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the X-ray Interference Lithography beamline at Paul Scherrer Institute of Swiss Light Source. As part of the Imaging & Microscopy team at NSLS-II, the candidate will have opportunities to collaborate using the state-of-the-art capabilities of the imaging and microscopy beamlines at NSLS-II.

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About Lauren Mason