News – Page 2

Congratulations to Christian Tanner for Being a Finalist for the APS DSOFT Emerging Soft Matter Excellence (ESME) Award

The APS DSOFT Emerging Soft Matter Excellence (ESME) Awardrecognizes an exceptional graduate student pursuing research in soft matter physics.

To be considered for the ESME Award the student must:

be a DSOFT member;
be currently pursuing a PhD;
not have completed the PhD requirements before the October 27, 2024 application deadline.

The DSOFT ESME committee will select 12 finalists who will be invited to give a 12-minute talk in a special DSOFT Early Career Awards Symposium at the March Meeting. Finalists will also be invited to a celebratory dinner with the DSOFT Chair and ESME Committee.

The Awards Symposium will be open to all March Meeting attendees and advertised broadly to DSOFT members. Following the Symposium, the ESME Committee will select the ESME Awardee based on the quality of the candidate’s research, their presentation, and their response to questions. The winner will be announced and recognized at the DSOFT Business Meeting, and will receive $250 honorarium.

X-ray vision

One of the first experimenters at the new flagship US laser, Michigan alum Franklin Dollar’s mission is bigger than research.

When the first beam of light ran through a laser system that will be the most powerful in the U.S., it was delivered to an experiment designed by an old hand at U-M’s Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences.

As a graduate student in the late 2000s, Franklin Dollar (MSE Electrical Engineering ’10, PhD Applied Physics ’12) built experiments at HERCULES, the most intense laser in the world at the time. HERCULES has now been upcycled into ZEUS, the Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultra-short laser pulse System—which will offer triple the power of the next largest US lasers. Its peak power is three petawatts, or more than 100 times global electricity production, but only for a few quintillionths of a second.

Dollar has stayed connected with the lab, leading experiments in late 2022, early 2023 and January this year that the ZEUS team used to work out the bugs in the system. Then earlier this month, he led ZEUS’s first official experiment in the flagship target area, where the signature zetawatt-equivalent experiments will take place.

Congratulations to Kwabena Bediako for Being Awarded the 2024 Philomathia Prize

The Philomathia Foundation is delighted to announce that Kwabena Bediako, assistant professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been awarded the 2024 Philomathia Prize. His innovative research is pushing the boundaries of materials science and could lead to groundbreaking advancements in electronics and renewable energy.

The Philomathia Prize has been presented annually since 2022 to an early-career Berkeley faculty member, from any discipline, who demonstrates great distinction and promise in their academic field. The prize, established through a generous endowment gift from the Philomathia Foundation, comes with a monetary award of $200,000 for use at the awardee’s discretion over a three-year period.

Bringing clarity to computational imaging

New tool removes motion artifacts when imaging dynamic samples. Imaging microscopic samples requires capturing multiple, sequential measurements, then using computational algorithms to reconstruct a single, high-resolution image. This process can work well when the sample is static, but if it’s moving — as is common with live, biological specimens — the final image may be blurry or distorted.

Now, Berkeley researchers have developed a method to improve temporal resolution for these dynamic samples. In a study published in Nature Methods, they demonstrated a new computational imaging tool, dubbed the neural space-time model (NSTM), that uses a small, lightweight neural network to reduce motion artifacts and solve for the motion trajectories.

Congratulations to Laura Waller for being Awarded the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Computational Microscopy

Laura Waller, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at University of California Berkeley, has been awarded the Max Planck-Humboldt Medal for her outstanding achievements in computational microscopy.

Prof. Waller uses algorithms – some of which are based on machine learning – to improve microscopy, particularly of biological samples, as well as the imaging of astronomical objects. This pioneer of computational microscopy is combining computer science and simple instruments to achieve such things as making more details visible and creating three-dimensional images or videos. Among other things, Laura Waller has further developed the phase contrast microscope, which can also image transparent objects. She has formulated algorithms that determine quantitative information about the phase of light waves – in simple terms, this is the displacement of light waves relative to each other– from a few images with illumination from different angles. The resulting images not only better visualise the shape of cells, but also allow better cell tracking. In another invention, the DiffuserCam, Waller places an uneven plastic plate on a light sensor, which scatters the incoming light. Very detailed 3D images can then be reconstructed from a single sensor reading, with applications in microscopy and astronomical imaging. The technology also makes it possible to create high-speed videos with low-speed camera equipment.

Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Feggeler for Receiving the Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division Postdoctoral Award from the American Vacuum Society in 2023

The MIND Postdoctoral Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the areas of interest to MIND. Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Feggeler for receiving this award in 2023!

Through hands-on research, PEAQS program helps students discover their love, passion for research

The Partnership for Education and the Advancement of Quantum and nanoSciences recently received its second, six-year $4.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Fort Lewis College second-year student Sharelle Yazzie —a pre-med major— never thought she would be interested in research. A transfer student from Diné College, she was checking out different opportunities at FLC when she met Izzy Lamb, assistant professor of Chemistry at FLC, who told her about his work throughout the PEAQS program.

From circuit boards to micro thrusters, an FLC alumnus solders a remarkable path in engineering

Thanks to the PEAQS program, Max Krauss (Computer Engineering, ’24), got to sharpen his skills in research and peer research publication before heading to University of Utah for a doctoral program. From tinkering with electronics as a child to tackling advanced nanofabrication in graduate school, Max Krauss’ (Computer Engineering, ‘24) is a story of curiosity, innovation, and transformative learning.

Congratulations to Benjamin Hammel and Emma Nelson for receiving Poster Awards at the CU Boulder Innovation in Materials Symposium 2024

Congratulations to Benjamin Hammel for receiving the First Place Poster Award and Emma Nelson for receiving the Third Place Poster Award at the 2024 Innovation in Materials Symposium! This symposium brought together the materials research community at CU Boulder and beyond for presentations by faculty and students as well as discussion and collaboration opportunities.

NSF funds over $50M in new partnerships to broaden participation in materials science

New awards from the NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials program will strengthen research infrastructure and education pathways at 15 minority-serving institutions, including six in EPSCoR states.

The U.S. National Science Foundation is announcing $50 million in Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) awards to 15 collaborative research projects nationwide to expand participation and access to materials science-focused facilities, education, training and careers.

NSF is investing over $50 million in total, which includes awards of over $4 million each to 11 partnering institutions over six years and $1 million in seed funding to each of four additional institutions over three years.

“Supporting the scientific talent present in every community in our country is imperative to strengthening the nation’s materials research infrastructure, which is central to everything from semiconductors to medical implants,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “NSF is dedicated to empowering everyone who wants to shape our scientific future for the benefit of their communities and the U.S. research community at large.”

Since 2004, the NSF PREM program has broadened access to materials science-focused skills and opportunities by supporting strategic partnerships between minority-serving institutions and NSF-funded research centers and facilities at research-intensive institutions.

In addition to fundamental materials research projects, the new PREM awards will support specialized training and mentorship for students and early-career researchers, new research faculty positions, expanded educational outreach to local high school students and teachers, and other activities to build pathways for the future materials research workforce. Six awards are to institutions located in states that receive less federal funding than others and participate in the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

The 2024 PREM awardees:

Partnership for Education and Advancement of Quantum and nano-Sciences at Fort Lewis College and Norfolk State University, in partnership with the Science and Technology Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand at the University of Washington, will directly support over 80 undergraduate and high school students at Fort Lewis College, a non-tribal Native American-serving institution in Durango, Colorado, and Norfolk State University, a historically Black university in Virginia. Research focus: quantum-level material properties with potential applications in materials fabrication and nanoscale devices such as nanotherapeutics for biomedical purposes.