STROBE in the News

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded new Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grants to support eight collaborations across the United States aimed at fostering cutting-edge materials research while increasing diversity.

The Fort Lewis College and Norfolk State University STROBE Science and Technology Center will focus on advanced imaging and characterization of functional nanomaterials. Fort Lewis College is a Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution, and additionally serves a significant Hispanic population. The PREM framework elements of this project will provide undergraduate students access to research mentors, guided research experiences, professional development activities, a peer support network and leadership opportunities.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded new Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) grants to support eight collaborations across the United States aimed at fostering cutting-edge materials research while increasing diversity. Each award is expected to total nearly $4 million and will support a materials research partnership between a minority-serving institution (MSI) and a large-scale research facility supported by NSF’s Division of Materials Research (DMR).

The PREM for Functional Nanomaterials is led by the Department of Physics & Engineering at Fort Lewis College (FLC; a Native American-Serving, Nontribal Institutions), together with Norfolk State University (NSU; a member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and the STROBE NSF Science and Technology Center for Real-Time Functional Imaging headquartered at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The partnership will enhance the educational, research, and career preparation experiences around material science for all students, but particularly traditionally underrepresented populations.

Franklin Dollar, Ph.D., assistant professor for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was awarded the prestigious five-year NSF grant valuing at $680,000 for his project titled CAREER: Coherent Laser Control for Compact Accelerators.

Dollar’s project supports a study of how to coherently control the physics of laser-driven particle accelerators by manipulating laser properties such as the laser wavefront. Advanced particle accelerators based on lasers have the potential to dramatically reduce the size and duration of such sources, and could have immediate applications in medical isotope production and radiography. This award will also support development of the Culturally relevant Accelerator Research and Engineering for Native Americans (CARE-NA) program, which will train students with broad practical skillsets with ties to community and culture.

“This project is one of those high-risk, high-return endeavors the NSF Division of Physics is particularly fond of supporting,” said National Science Foundation program officer Vyacheslav Lukin, who oversees Dollar’s CAREER grant. “We will look forward to seeing Dollar take this research from studies of underlying plasma physics and optics to breakthroughs that may enable tabletop accelerators — and their high-impact practical applications.”

“Accelerator science, and physics as a whole, can benefit tremendously from increased diversity and broad engagement with the public,” shared Dollar. “At UCI we wish to continue to lead in this arena across physical sciences.”

Bjoern Enders joined the ALS as a postdoc in July 2016. He first worked on Beamline 5.3.2.1 before moving to Beamline 7.0.1 (COSMIC) when 5.3.2.1 was disassembled and the ptychography program was moved in the summer of 2017. His research is part of the NSF Science and Technology Center STROBE.

Double Helix Optics, a 3D nano-imaging company, was recognized as the most promising optics, photonics, and imaging (OPI) startup, taking home $1 million in investment funding from Luminate. The company’s patented Light Engineering™ technology turns 2D imaging into 3D information capture, allowing scientists to see structures in their entirety to accelerate disease discovery and research, drug development, industrial inspection, and beyond. Already, the technology is in use at leading research laboratories in the U.S. and Europe.

Cancer, aging-related diseases and other illnesses are closely tied to an important enzyme called “telomerase.” UCLA researchers report in the journal Cell the deepest scientific understanding yet of this once-mysterious enzyme, whose catalytic core — where most of its activity occurs — can now be seen in near atomic resolution.

CAMERA/ALS/STROBE Collaboration Yields Novel Image Data Workflow Pipeline. Now an inter-government agency funded collaboration of scientists from Berkeley Lab’s DOE-funded Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications (CAMERA), the ALS and STROBE, the National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center, has yielded another first-of-its-kind advance for ptychographic imaging: a software/algorithmic pipeline that enables real-time streaming of ptychographic image data during a beamline experiment, providing throughput, compression and resolution as well as rapid feedback to the user while the experiment is still running.

Yes, touch it, ask questions, and learn how it works. That’s part of the hands-on science experience that University of Colorado Boulder and Fort Lewis College faculty are taking on the road, encouraging students to consider careers in engineering and technical fields.

Dolores School District students… try to figure out what is in the scanning electron microscope after shining a laser beam into it on Tuesday during the Light, Energy and Imaging STEM Workshop inSitter Hall at Fort Lewis College. About 60 students in sixth through 10th grades learned about scale and real-time imaging in the Nano-World, explored photosynthesis and solar energy at the nano-scale and learned about tools that change our perspective on the universe.

Dr. Henry Kapteyn is elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

CAMBRIDGE, MA | April 18, 2018 — As part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ commitment to recognizing and celebrating excellence, 213 individuals in a wide range of disciplines and professions have been elected as members of the Class of 2018. Founded in 1780, the Academy honors exceptional scholars, leaders, artists, and innovators and engages them in sharing knowledge and addressing challenges facing the world.