News – Page 3

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 (Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division) Postdoctoral Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the areas of interest to MIND. The award comes with a certificate and a cash prize for the winner. Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Feggeler for receiving this award!

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.

Congratulations to Oliver Shao for being awarded the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures

Yunzhe “Oliver” Shao, a graduate student at JILA in the group led by JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, has been awarded the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures.

Shao’s winning research focused on developing an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) reflectometer. This innovative instrument is designed to characterize various nanostructured samples’ chemical compositions and spatial properties.

“This research represents a first-iteration, proof-of-concept instrumentation for nanostructure metrology,” Shao explained. “It has been constructed, developed, and improved over several generations of graduate students in our group. It is reassuring and inspiring to share its new capabilities and witness the interest it generates from the metrology community.”

The paper was submitted to the 2024 IEEE Conference on Computational Imaging Using Synthetic Apertures, created in partnership with and hosted by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology). The annual event highlights advancements in cutting-edge computer imaging and sensing using high-resolution imaging systems, like the reflectometer Shao and the KM group work on.

Shao expressed gratitude for the recognition, highlighting the collective effort behind the project. “Apart from its founding members, whose names are listed in several previous publications, the reflectometer does not exist without the continuing efforts of current students and postdocs from our group, including Nick Jenkins, Clay Klein, Yunhao Li, and Jiayi Liu. We are motivated to further develop and improve this metrology instrument beyond its current limitations.”

Congratulations to Anya Grafov for being awarded the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Magnetics Summer School in Taipei

Anya Grafov, a graduate student at JILA, has been awarded the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Magnetics Society Summer School 2024. Studying under JILA Fellows and University of Colorado Boulder Physics professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn, Grafov’s poster titled “Probing Ultrafast Spin Dynamics with Extreme Ultraviolet High Harmonics” was one of only nine to receive this prestigious recognition.

“Winning this award from the IEEE Magnetics Society is an incredible honor. It validates the hard work and dedication put into our research and motivates us to continue pushing the boundaries in magnetics research,” stated Grafov. “Our technique is quite niche, so I wanted to focus my poster on our actual measurement technique and the experiments we conduct. It’s an overview of the measurement technique and examples of two recent projects we’ve been working on using our beamline.”

Highlighting the fundamentals and new research, like Grafov’s, in magnetics, the annual summer school brings together graduate students worldwide to study magnetism through lectures by international experts and poster presentations.

“It was a great experience to learn about different aspects of magnetism, from fundamental research to applied technologies like spintronic devices and magnetic artificial intelligence,” she added.