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Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry (MF) hosted the Frontiers of Electron Tomography in the Physical Sciences conference together with UCLA and STROBE (an NSF Science and Technology Center) to disseminate results and discuss new ideas for three-dimensional imaging techniques. The conference was held in Berkeley, CA from October 23rd – 26th and included a two-day workshop of research talks followed by a two-day short course. A total of 97 people registered for the conference.
Tomography is a technique that can reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of objects at the nanoscale from a series of two-dimensional images such as those acquired by scanning / transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM). It has become an increasingly important technique in nanoscale research for quantitative characterization in three-dimensions of a wide range of materials systems. Recent advances in S/TEM hardware and reconstruction algorithms has extended this technique to the atomic scale in a technique known as atomic electron tomography (AET). A joint collaboration between UCLA and the MF, with funding from DOE BES and STROBE, has proven atomic resolution imaging is possible with precision of 19 trillionths of a meter (19 picometers). The FET2017 conference was held to discuss these new capabilities, potential future applications and provide in-depth teaching of the technique to graduate and postdoctoral students.
The two-day workshop included talks by several internationally recognized speakers on electron imaging and tomography as well as a poster session highlighting student research. Attendees were given the opportunity to take part in discussions on improvements and applications to AET. An important discussion during the workshop focused on the need for a materials data bank (MDB) of atomic resolution data sets and experimentally determined atomic coordinates made available openly to the physical sciences research community. This database, currently under development, will provide peer-reviewed sets of atomic structures and should be available in 2018.
After the workshop, tomography experts taught two days of lectures and hands-on tutorials to graduate and postdoctoral students on electron tomography topics such as theory, experimental design and newly available software. The new GENFIRE algorithm and open-source software developed as part of STROBE to reconstruct the atomic structure of materials. Also presented was the open-source Tomviz tomography analysis and visualization platform developed by Kitware, Inc. All lecture materials are available at the FET2017 short course website in an effort to increase the accessibility of the AET technique.
The conference was held jointly by the MF, UCLA and STROBE with contributions from several industry partners. More information is available at the conference website.
The NIST NRC Postdoctoral Program supports a nationwide competitive postdoctoral program administered in cooperation with the National Academies/National Research Council (NRC). The postdoctoral program brings research scientists and engineers of unusual promise and ability to perform advanced research related to the NIST mission, introduces the latest university research results and techniques to NIST scientific programs, strengthens mutual communication with university researchers, shares NIST unique research facilities with the U.S. scientific and engineering communities, and provides a valuable mechanism for the transfer of research results from NIST to the scientific and engineering communities.
This MRI acquisition will establish the first amplified ultrashort pulse laser facility for spectroscopy and energy science in the Four Corners region of the United States. The facility will be based at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango, Colorado.
Former JILAn Dennis F. Gardner Jr. (Kapteyn-Murnane group) has been awarded the 2017 American Physical Society’s Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award for his doctoral work in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging. Gardner received $1,000 and a certificate citing his contribution to laser science.
Gardner’s thesis, entitled “Coherent diffractive imaging near the spatio-temporal limit with high harmonic sources” (2017), demonstrates the highest resolution-to-wavelength ratio ever achieved with coherent diffractive imaging. These advances to imaging are critical for advancing nanoelectronics, data storage, and nanoengineered systems.
Gardner is currently a Research Physicist at Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc. in Washington D.C.
Gardner graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in physics before joining the Kapteyn-Murnane group at JILA in the summer of 2011. During his time at JILA, he was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship (2011) and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2011). He also won the Optical Society’s Emil Wolf Outstanding Paper Competition in 2015.
The Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award was established by the American Physical Society (APS) in 2013 to recognize novel applications of light-matter interactions in doctoral research, and to encourage effective written and oral presentations. Four finalists are selected to present their dissertation work at the Laser Science Conference. This year’s finalists also included Tal Galfsky from The City University of New York, Vivishek Sudhir from Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne, and Shuo Sun from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Jose Rodriguez sees antibodies latch onto receptors and stop cancer cells from feeding on iron. He sees an infectious protein fragment grip its neighbors to form the flat sheets that clutter the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease. Atom by atom, his imaginary animations crystallize as he creates minuscule maps of some of the most elusive biological structures ever studied.
Professor Jose Rodriguez has been selected as a Beckman Young Investigator by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation… According to the Beckman Foundation website, “these individuals exemplify the Foundation’s mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open new avenues of research in science. They were selected from a pool of over 300 applicants after a three-part review led by a panel of scientific experts.”
The Campanile Excellence in Achievement Award recognizes an alumnus/a whose remarkable professional achievements reflect the excellence of a UC Berkeley education.
The strength of the Academy lies in the intellectual leadership of its members and the wide range of expertise they bring to its studies and publications.
The Academy membership encompasses over 4,600 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members and reflects the full range of disciplines and professions: mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, the social sciences and humanities, business, government, public affairs, and the arts. Among the Academy’s Fellows are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
[Jose] said he is honored to be named a Searle Scholar and said the funding provided by the award will allow his research group to pursue new ways to probe the structures of macromolecules at the atomic scale.