Tag: award

Interviews with the winners of the Student Clips challenge at FASEM 2026, which was sponsored by Lightsources.org

1st prize winner was Maimunah Fa Izun Haji Abdul Rahman, a PhD student at the ESRF in Grenoble

Can you tell us about your background?

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from Malaysia and a Master’s in Materials Science and Chemistry through the Erasmus Mundus MESC+ program, where I studied across Poland, France, and Spain with a focus on energy storage systems. I am currently a PhD student at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) working on biomass-derived hard carbons for sodium-ion batteries, with an emphasis on understanding structure-property relationships at multiple length scales using advanced characterization techniques.

What attracted you to the FASEM school?

My background is more centred on materials and chemistry, so I wanted to build a stronger understanding of characterization techniques, especially X-ray scattering, which is central to my PhD. FASEM appealed to me because of its broad scope, covering not only SAXS and WAXS but also complementary methods like neutron scattering and XRR, all with a strong emphasis on practical understanding.

What did you get out of attending the school?

What I valued most was the exchange with people working on very different fields but facing similar questions involving X-ray and neutron-based analyses. It really broadened how I think about my own work. At the same time, the school filled in a lot of gaps, from new characterization approaches to practical things like writing beamtime proposals. It also made concepts I’d seen before feel much more concrete and usable.

How will you build on what you learnt in your own research?

FASEM broadened how I think about designing experiments and interpreting data. In addition to SAXS and WAXS, I’m particularly interested in incorporating techniques like X-ray tomography to better understand morphological features, and neutron scattering to probe low-Z elements that are otherwise difficult to resolve. More broadly, I aim to take a more integrated approach to characterization, combining multiple techniques to gain a more complete understanding of my materials.

2nd prize winner was Sagar Jathar, Uppsala University

Can you tell us about your background?

I am a PhD student in Inorganic Chemistry at Uppsala University, working in close collaboration with Westinghouse company on developing chromium-based protective coatings for applications in harsh environments, particularly for nuclear fuel rod cladding.

 What attracted you to the FASEM school?

FASEM attracted me because of its strong focus on synchrotron and neutron-based techniques and its close connection to major large-scale research facilities such as MAX IV, ESRF, and ILL, which are highly relevant to my work. It was particularly exciting to gain first-hand insight into how these facilities operate and how advanced experimental techniques can be applied in real research. Understanding how to design experiments and effectively use these tools is very valuable for my PhD. In addition, the school provided an excellent platform to interact with researchers from different backgrounds, build a professional network, and exchange ideas. Such programs are extremely helpful for developing collaborations and broadening perspectives in advanced materials research.

 What did you get out of attending the school?

I gained deeper insight into advanced scattering techniques such as XANES and EXAFS, particularly for probing the local atomic structure in complex or amorphous materials. In addition, I learned how neutron scattering can be used to study hydrogen-related phenomena in nuclear reactors, such as ZrH₂ hydride formation, which is one of the key causes of cladding embrittlement and loss of structural integrity. Because neutrons are highly sensitive to light elements like hydrogen, these techniques enable mapping of hydrogen distribution and provide a clearer understanding of hydride formation and its impact on material performance.

 How will you build on what you learnt in your own research?

I will apply synchrotron based X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to better understand local structure and bonding in my Cr–Nb–N coatings, helping to establish stronger structure–property relationships for nuclear applications. Also, with operando neutron radiography/tomography to physically see the hydrogen uptake and embrittlement deep inside the cladding tube.

3rd prize winner was Marcus Liljenberg, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm

Can you tell us about your background?

I have a MSc in Chemical engineering with a focus on material science from Uppsala University. After graduating I was working for a few years in industry. I’ve always wanted to do my own research, so when the opportunity came I started as an industrial PhD student at KTH and PowerCell in Sweden. My topic is intermediate temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells, where I’m focusing on optimizing the catalyst layers.

What attracted you to the FASEM school?

Many of the papers I’ve been reading include methods using small angle scattering techniques. Interpreting these results is not trivial and I’ve been looking for some course to study these methods. I was lucky to find FASEM and that the focus this year is on energy materials is a happy coincidence! 

What did you get out of attending the school?

A broad introduction to many techniques using x-rays and neutrons, which I hope to incorporate in my own research. I’m also hoping on getting some advice on how to proceed to make proposals to get to do my own experiments. I’m not experienced in this and neither are my supervisors, which makes it a bit difficult to start. This is also a very good opportunity to network and I’ve met many nice persons, some that I could perhaps even collaborate with.

How will you build on what you learnt in your own research?

I will have a much better understanding of reading literature where these techniques are applied. I’m also hoping to be able to consider designing my own experiments that can compliment other methods that I’m currently using. I’ll try to keep in contact with others that attended, perhaps we can continue with collaborations.

Early career scientists celebrate their success in Lightsources.org sponsored awards

Early career scientists celebrate their success in Lightsources.org sponsored awards

A group of early career scientists participating in two established training schools have received Lightsources.org awards recognising the work they presented during the 2026 editions of the schools.   

Ana Belén Martínez, Head of Communications and Outreach at ALBA and Chair of Lightsources.org, comments, “An important goal for Lightsources.org is to support early career STEM professionals and highlight both the career opportunities and experimental capabilities of the facilities within our global membership. Partnering with HERCULES 2026 and the FASEM school has enabled us to recognise outstanding contributions during these two schools, both of which provide incredible experiences for those looking to build their knowledge and experience within a range of world class European facilities. Our congratulations go to all the winners and everyone who took part in these training schools.”

The HERCULES EUROPEAN SCHOOL, which celebrates its 35th Anniversary this year, runs over five weeks and provides training for students, postdoctoral and senior scientists from European and non-European universities and laboratories, in the field of Neutrons, X-ray Synchrotron Radiation, and Free Electron Laser for condensed matter studies.

It’s coordinated by the Université Grenoble Alpes in collaboration with the ESRF, ILL and counts with the support of other European facilities (ALBA, DESY, Elettra, KIT, MAX IV, SLS, SOLEIL, European XFEL, ESS and FERMI). Each year, four of these partner large scale facilities give participants the opportunity to gain practical experience.

For HERCULES 2026, they were ALBA in Spain, KIT in Germany, MAX IV and the ESS in Sweden and SOLEIL in France. The students who spent time at the ALBA synchrotron near Barcelona could learn from the scientists about different techniques, sample preparation and data collection process, combining talks and practical sessions at the beamlines. They worked in teams and presented their experimental reports in groups of four on the last day of the school. Lightsources.org awards were presented to the group who the local jury selected as having given the best presentation.  

The winning group at ALBA with members of the local jury

As a complementary educative initiative, the French-Swedish Academy for Scattering Experiments and Modeling (FASEM) is a one-week, biennial advanced-school, that rotate across three key thematic areas: Scattering Techniques for Environment & Materials, Life Sciences, and Energy Applications. The third version was coordinated by ESS, ILL and the French Embassy with support from ESRF. “Its goals are to prepare the future generation of users of large-scale facilities for synchrotron and neutron scattering; to develop and strengthen sustainable scientific exchanges driven by the French and Swedish communities on the use of large-scale facilities, in connection with the forthcoming ESS operation; to reinforce links between research infrastructures, academia and industry; and to strengthen collaboration between institutes in France (ILL, ESRF, SOLEIL) and in Sweden (ESS, MAX-IV),” explains Christine Darve FASEM coordinator. “The 3rd edition organized at ILL, was held in a hybrid format, bringing 30 in-person participants and more than 55 online students to learn scattering techniques (small-angle, diffraction, spectroscopy, etc) applied to energy materials ,” adds Peter Fouquet, ILL local organizer.

During FASEM 2026, students participated in a Student Clips challenge where they were invited to present their research to camera. Lightsources.org sponsored this challenge and prizes were awarded to the students who produced the top three clips.

Maimunah Fa Izun Haji Abdul Rahman, a PhD student at the ESRF in Grenoble, won 1st prize in the FASEM 2026 Lightsources.org Student Clips challenge. 2nd and 3rd prizes went to Sagar Jathar, Uppsala University, and Marcus Liljenberg, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, respectively.

Maimunah Fa Izun Haji Abdul Rahman receiving 1st prize certificate at FASEM 2026

Reflecting on the week at FASEM, Maimunah comments, “What I valued most was the exchange with people working on very different fields but facing similar questions involving X-ray and neutron-based analyses. It really broadened how I think about my own work. At the same time, the school filled in a lot of gaps, from new characterization approaches to practical things like writing beamtime proposals. It also made concepts I’d seen before feel much more concrete and usable.”

Sagar adds, “I gained deeper insight into advanced scattering techniques such as XANES and EXAFS, particularly for probing the local atomic structure in complex or amorphous materials. In my own research, I now plan to apply synchrotron-based X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to better understand local structure and bonding in my Cr–Nb–N coatings, helping to establish stronger structure–property relationships for nuclear applications.”     

Read full interviews with Maimunah, Sagar and Marcus here

The one-week FASEM2026 material is available here

The Student Clips and other talks from the school can be found here

Gihan Kamel awarded the John Wheatley Award 2025

Gihan Kamel awarded the John Wheatley Award 2025

SESAME is pleased to announce that three distinguished scientists, Gihan Kamel, Sekazi Mtingwa, and Simon H. Connell, have been named the 2025 recipients of the prestigious John Wheatley Award, which is given biennially by the American Physical Society (APS) to recognise exceptional contributions to capacity building in the Global South through advancing physics research and education. 

Gihan Kamel, principal scientist at SESAME’s Infrared Spectromicroscopy beamline, has been recognised for exceptional contributions to capacity building in Africa, the Middle East, and other developing regions, including leadership in training researchers in beamline techniques at synchrotron light sources and establishing the groundwork for future facilities in the Global South. 

Kamel’s contributions go beyond her role in SESAME: as a prominent member of both SESAME and the African Light Source (AfLS) – a project aiming at establishing Africa’s first synchrotron facility – her efforts have been critical in bridging gaps between SESAME and the African Light Source, resulting in a strong network that promotes cross-border scientific progress. In the words of Gihan Kamel in commenting on the Award: “Science is not meant to stay inside laboratories or published in research papers. Science must have a global mission and must always find its way everywhere despite challenges and disappointments“

Read more on SESAME website

Image: Gihan Kamel

Yuting Luo receives 2024 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award

Yuting Luo receives 2024 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award

Yuting Luo, an assistant professor in materials science and engineering and Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, was named the 2024 recipient of the Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award.

This award has been given annually by the Advanced Photon Source (APS) user organization since 2004. It recognizes important scientific or technical accomplishments at (or beneficial to) the APSby a young investigator. Typically, the recipient is a senior graduate student or early career researcher. The APS is a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility located at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

“Receiving the Rosalind Franklin Award from the APS fills me with deep honor and excitement. This recognition inspires me to further my commitment to bridging knowledge gaps and driving innovation, and I am genuinely humbled by this honor.” — Yuting Luo, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University

The award is named for Rosalind Franklin. The chemist played a critical, but largely unacknowledged, role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Luo specializes in designing and characterizing multi-scale materials for energy storage applications. Her research looks at the correlation among chemical, electrochemical and mechanical properties. She aims to understand their impact on functional performances.

A visiting research student at Argonne since 2019, much of Luo’s work was accomplished at the APS.

Read more on APS website

Image : Yuting Luo is the winner of the 2024 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award

Credit: Johns Hopkins University

Jessica McBeck wins the ESRF Young Scientist Award 2024

Jessica McBeck wins the ESRF Young Scientist Award 2024

Jessica McBeck, a geologist and computer scientist from the University of Oslo in Norway, has been awarded the ESRF Young Scientist Award (YSA) 2024 during the ESRF User meeting. She received the award “for her outstanding contribution to the understanding of multi-scale fracture network development in rocks.”

When will an earthquake happen? Questions like this are central in Jessica McBeck’s research. And the ESRF is plays a big role in it: “The ESRF is extremely important in my research as it allows me to delve inside the rock in 4D, and in particular at the stress conditions at depths within the crust, where the most damaging earthquakes occur”.

McBeck has a background as a geologist and a computer scientist, developing software and carrying out experiments with sand, which is an analog for rocks. An avid programmer, today, she uses computer science to answer geological questions. “Without the ESRF, my research would be entirely limited to numerical models, and having only numerical models prompts the question of how realistic they are”, she says. McBeck is part of the team working in François Renard’s ERC project Break-through rocks, which relies on a collaboration between the Njord Centre at the University of Oslo and the ESRF. Her experiments take place on ID19 and BM18.

As a student, McBeck focused on long-term fault development over hundreds and millions of years including tens of hundreds of earthquakes, but thanks to synchrotron analysis she can now study the damage that occurs on the rock in the weeks and months prior an earthquake.

The jury of the YSA highlights that “her combination of finite element modeling with quantitative measurements, and more recently machine learning, is a huge step toward a comprehensive understanding of the macroscopic failure of rocks”.

More than half of McBeck’s publications feature ESRF data and her work, according to the jury “potentially has a broad impact for the prediction of earthquakes”.

Read more on ESRF website

Image: Jess McBeck on ID19 during an experiment

Credit:  J. McBeck

European XFEL Young Scientist Award for Jiawei Yan

European XFEL Young Scientist Award for Jiawei Yan

Dr. Jiawei Yan was awarded the 2,000-euro prize for young scientists for the development of methods for generating ultrashort high-power pulses at the SASE2 line of the European XFEL.

He and a team from the FEL Physics group of the European XFEL and the MXL group at DESY, which is responsible for the operation of the XFEL, developed a method to achieve remarkably sharp current profiles with high peak currents.

Read more on XFEL website

Image: Marc Simon, Co-Chair of the User Organization Executive Committee, ceremonially presents the award to Jiawei Yan. 

Credit: European XFEL

European Young Chemists’ Award for Sebastian Weber

European Young Chemists’ Award for Sebastian Weber

In recognition of Sebastian’s PhD thesis on hard X-ray microscopy, tomography, and application of synchrotron radiation in catalysis research

Sebastian Weber, a recent PhD graduate at the Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry (ITCP) / Institute for Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), was awarded the Gold Medal in the PhD category of the European Young Chemists‘ Award. The award is presented every two years during the EuChemS Chemistry Congress on behalf of the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) and the European Chemical Society (EuChemS). The prize highlights excellent research from young / early stage researchers across all fields of chemistry and chemical sciences. During his PhD phase, Sebastian Weber studied materials used in heterogeneous catalysis with a broad range of spatially-resolved X-ray characterisation methods, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the structure and function of catalysts. The project made extensive use of synchrotron radiation, specifically X-ray microscopy and tomography as emerging methods in catalysis research. This success on the European level highlights the leading role which synchrotron science has to play in the study of matter.

Catalysis plays a crucial role in sustainable chemical production, chemical energy conversion and storage, among many others, and is a key technology area in synchrotron radiation research. During his PhD work at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Sebastian Weber studied catalysts for CO2 methanation using spatially-resolved characterisation tools including X-ray microscopy and tomography. These diverse X-ray imaging methods were exploited to study the 3D structure of catalytic materials over a range of length scales, addressing various levels of hierarchical structural features which are critical to understanding catalyst performance. This topic is a special focus of the Young Investigator Group of Dr. Thomas Sheppard at KIT, who supervised and secured funding for the project, within the wider group of Prof. Jan-Dierk Grunwaldt.

Only a handful of research groups worldwide are currently active in the field of X-ray microscopy applied to catalysis research, highlighting the emerging role of this vibrant research field. During his PhD work, Sebastian Weber in particular worked to develop applications of hard X-ray ptychography and ptychographic X-ray tomography (PXCT) to study catalyst pore structures, structural evolution under reaction conditions, and the effects of catalyst deactivation. These methods routinely reach spatial resolution below 50 nanometres (0.001 x diameter of a human hair), and have been applied so far on samples up to 50 micron in diameter (ca. the diameter of a human hair). The further development of ptychography holds excellent potential for catalysis and materials research, particularly in the age of fourth generation light sources with improved coherence and decreased source emittance. The project resulted in several high quality publications in leading chemistry and materials journals, reflecting the knowledge gained regarding 3D structure of catalysts, and the potential for development of improved catalysts in future.

Sebastian Weber recently completed his doctorate with the title “Revealing Porosity and Structure of Ni-based Catalysts for Dynamic CO2 Methanation with Hard X-rays”, earning a distinction from KIT. Now his work was further recognised by securing the Gold Medal of the European Young Chemists’ Award at PhD level. The award is presented every two years during the EuChemS Chemistry Congress on behalf of the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) and the European Chemical Society (EuChemS). The prize highlights excellent research from young / early stage researchers across all fields of chemistry and chemical sciences, and is therefore a highly competitive prize. After a pre-selection phase based on scientific excellence, the six finalists each held a presentation at the EuChemS Chemistry Congress in Lisbon, Portugal. The award not only highlights the excellent contribution of Sebastian Weber to the field of chemical sciences, but promotes in front a broad audience the essential role of synchrotron radiation in delivering future insights and innovations across the field of natural sciences.

Related articles on this research can be found in the Diamond Annual Review 2021-2022, “X-ray ptychography investigates coking of solid catalysts in 3D”, p.66-67, and on the DESY website

Image: Award ceremony during the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, Sebastian Weber (KIT, left), Prof. Floris Rutjes (President of the European Chemical Society, middle) and Prof. Angela Agostiano (Chair of the EYCA Award Committee, right).

Graphics: EYCA

NSLS-II Researchers Win 2022 Microscopy Today Innovation Award

NSLS-II Researchers Win 2022 Microscopy Today Innovation Award

The team developed a set of bonded x-ray lenses to overcome a long-standing alignment issue, making nanometer resolution more accessible than ever before.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory received the 2022 Microscopy Today Innovation Award for their development of a system with bonded x-ray lenses that make nanoscale resolution more accessible than ever before. When the team at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a DOE Office of Science user facility, tested the new lens system, they achieved a resolution down to approx. 10 nanometers.

“We need technologies of the future to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges — from microelectronics to tiny qubits for quantum computers to longer-lasting batteries,” said John Hill, NSLS-II Director. “However, to develop these new devices, researchers need to study materials at the nanoscale. And this where these new lenses really come into their own. They make focusing hard x-ray beams down to a few nanometers much easier than ever before. By using the very focused x-ray beams that these lenses produce, we can reveal the function, structure, and chemistry of next-generation materials on the nanoscale. This crucial breakthrough was only made possible through years of intense work by experts—who are world-leaders in their respective fields—working together. I am delighted that their work has been recognized by this award and very proud to have this new lens system at NSLS-II.”

Read more on the Brookhaven National Laboratory website

Image: The members of the development team in front of NSLS-II. From left to right: Yong Chu, Hanfei Yan, Weihe Xu, Wei Xu, Xiaojing Huang, Ming Lu, Natalie Bouet, Evgeny Nazaretski. Not pictured: Juan Zhou and Maxim Zalalutdinov.

NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award established to recognize distinguished research teams

NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award established to recognize distinguished research teams

The award ceremony for the 1st NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award was held on November 24, 2021. The research team led by Prof. Hao Ming Chen from National Taiwan University has earned unanimous recognition from the panel of experts and was awarded a trophy and a prize of TWD 300,000. At the ceremony, Dr. Chun-Jung Chen, the NSRRC Deputy Director, endorsed the team’s contribution and breakthroughs for the scientific innovations resulting from using NSRRC light sources.
 
The former NSRRC Director, Academician Chien-Ten Chen, received the Presidential Science Prize in 2017. He donated the prize, including the trophy and the award money, to the NSRRC, for the purpose of encouraging and rewarding international and domestic research teams to spur significant scientific innovations by using NSRRC synchrotron facilities.
 
Academician Chen is a renowned physicist who has dedicated himself to exploring science and building avant-garde instruments. He continues to excel in inventing high-resolution spectrometers, as well as developing soft X-ray experimental techniques and applications. Thanks to the full support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Academician Chen was able to lead the whole NSRRC team to accomplish the construction of the Taiwan Photon Source, the most cutting-edge and the largest experimental facilities ever built in Taiwan. The team’s efforts have not only enhanced Taiwan’s international academic status and the competitiveness of scientific research, but will also facilitate science and technology that makes a positive impact on improving human life and well-being.
 
NSRRC, entrusted with the mission of succeeding Academician Chen’s pursuit for the ultimate of science, installed the solar panels at the current site, and also established the NSRRC Outstanding Paper Award in 2021. To supplement the wonderful donation from Academician Chen, the NSRRC will continue to fund the prize with the revenue from the solar panels. This award presented by Academician Chen will motivate and inspire more research teams to uncover the truth in the universe and solve the global challenges using synchrotron radiation.
 
This year’s recipient, Prof. Hao Ming Chen’s team was recognized for their research on the development of in-situ techniques for chemical reactions, which was granted long-term support by the Ministry of Science and Technology. In particular, they reported that an iron catalyst with activity equaling or exceeding that of the precious metals by measurements of synchrotron techniques. The stabilization of dispersed single iron ions in the +3 oxidation state was shown to be key. Their findings on this novel catalyst were unprecedented and could significantly reduce the cost of catalysts. The research results were published in the world’s leading journal, Science, in 2019.
 

Read more on the NSRRC website

NSLS-II scientist named DOE Office of Science Distinguished Fellow

NSLS-II scientist named DOE Office of Science Distinguished Fellow

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have garnered two out of five “Distinguished Scientists Fellow” awards announced today by the DOE’s Office of Science.

Theoretical physicist Sally Dawson, a world-leader in calculations aimed at describing the properties of the Higgs boson, and José Rodriguez, a renowned chemist exploring and developing catalysts for energy-related reactions, will each receive $1 million in funding over three years to pursue new research objectives within their respective fields. (…)

José Rodriguez (NSLS-II)

For discoveries of the atomic basis of surface catalysis for the synthesis of sustainable fuels, and for significantly advancing in-situ methods of investigation using synchrotron light sources.”

Rodriguez will devote his funding to the development and construction of new tools for performing extremely rapid, time-resolved measurements to track the reaction mechanisms of catalytic processes as they occur under variable conditions—like those encountered during real-world reactions important to energy applications. These include processes on metal-oxide catalysts frequently used in the production of clean fuels and other “green” chemicals through hydrogenation of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, or the conversion of methane to hydrogen.

“At a microscopic level, the structure of a catalyst and the chemical environment around the active sites—where chemical bonds are broken and reformed as reactants transform into new products—change as a function of time, thus determining the reaction mechanism,” said Rodriguez. “We can learn a lot about the nature of the active sites under steady-state conditions, with no variations in temperature, pressure, and reaction rate. But to really understand the details of the reaction mechanism, we need ways to track what happens under transient or variable conditions. This funding will allow us to build new instrumentation that works with existing capabilities so we can study catalysts under variable conditions—and use what we learn to improve their performance.”

>Read more on the NSLS-II website

Godehard Wüstefeld receives the Horst Klein Research Prize

Godehard Wüstefeld receives the Horst Klein Research Prize

The physicist Dr. Godehard Wüstefeld was awarded the Horst Klein Research Prize at the annual conference of the German Physical Society.

The award recognizes his outstanding scientific achievements in accelerator physics in the development of BESSY II and BESSY VSR.
Over the last thirty years, Dr. Godehard Wüstefeld has made decisive contributions to the further development of storage-ring-based synchrotron radiation sources. Thanks to its innovative concepts, the performance and application areas of storage rings have been consistently expanded. Wüstefeld participated in the development of BESSY II and the Metrology Light Source and implemented several innovations there.

>Read more on the BESSY II at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin website

Image: Dr. Godehard Wüstefeld was awarded the Horst Klein Research Prize.
Credit: DPG

Award for a pioneer in synchrotron techniques and tools

Award for a pioneer in synchrotron techniques and tools

Zahid Hussain is honored with the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award during a surprise ceremony.

Zahid Hussain, a longtime scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has always been more focused on achievements than accolades, though his lists run long in both categories.

His fingerprints are on many of the instruments and scientific milestones at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), which produces many types of light, from infrared to X-rays, for a range of experiments carried out by visiting scientists from around the world. He has pioneered soft X-ray techniques and instrumentation at the ALS that have been widely adopted by the global scientific community.

>Read more on the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Berkeley Lab

Innovative educational programs at Canadian Light Source

Innovative educational programs at Canadian Light Source

NSERC PromoScience awards $125K to innovative educational programs at Canadian Light Source.

The Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan has been awarded $125,000 by NSERC’s PromoScience program, to deliver innovative educational programs expected to reach students in over 100 schools across Canada.
PromoScience funding will enable teachers and students to perform hands-on research addressing real-world issues, through existing and new programs.

A new initiative, the Trans-Canadian Research & Environmental Education (TREE) project, will allow students from even the most remote communities across Canada to participate in a national research program in partnership with the Mistik Askiwin Dendrochronology (MAD) Lab at the University of Saskatchewan, using tree cores to study the environmental history of their community.

In an unprecedented collaboration between research and education, students will gather tree core samples and mail them to the CLS, where scientists will examine their chemical signatures while live streaming with the students who collected each sample. Teaching resources will help students to make sense of the data and to compare with other student samples from across the country, in order to understand how chemical changes in different tree cores correlate to their community’s environmental history.

“Students will learn about the life and nutrient cycles of trees, the trees’ ability to capture information in rings, and the nutrients in soil by working through modules and activities designed to engage students in the areas of STEM and traditional knowledge,” said Tracy Walker, Education Programs Lead at the CLS.

>Read more on the Canadian Light Source website

Strain research on rotating bearings wins Fylde prize for best paper

Strain research on rotating bearings wins Fylde prize for best paper

The paper – “Dynamic contact strain measurement by time‐resolved stroboscopic energy dispersive synchrotron X‐ray diffraction,” was the result of a collaboration between the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol, Oxford and Diamond Light Source. The researchers set themselves the challenge not just of measuring the strain in a bearing, but of capturing the measurement while the bearing was rotating and under load. This involved using a special stroboscopic X-ray diffraction technique to measure the strain in the rotating piece of machinery.
The authors will receive their award from the Journal’s Editorial Board and the British Society for Strain Measurement (BSSM) on 30th August 2018 and have been invited to present their paper at the BSSM’s International Conference on Advances in Experimental Mechanics in Southampton at 29 – 31 August 2018.
Image: The bearing experiment.
Call for nominations: Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2018

Call for nominations: Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2018

The Society of Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) announces the bestowal of the Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation*.

The award was established in 2001 for an excellent achievement which has contributed significantly to the further development of techniques, methods or uses of synchrotron radiation. Scientists and engineers from research institutions, universities, and industry within Europe are addressed. The Innovation Award includes a monetary prize of 3000 Euro and will be bestowed at the Users’ Meeting of HZB (BESSY II) in December 2018.

All nominations should be submitted to the Chair of the Society by September 30, 2018. Suggestions of candidates have to be addressed electronically and must include a concise, verifiable description in English of the scientific-technological achievement. The curriculum vitae, the publication list of the candidate(s) and at five most relevant publications have to be submitted. Two references should be named.

Please address nominations to:

Prof. Dr. Mathias Richter
Chair of the Society of Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
Head of Department Radiometry with Synchrotron Radiation, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Technische Universität Berlin
Email: mathias.richter@ptb.de

*sponsored by SPECS GmbH and BESTEC GmbH, Berlin.

>Read more about the Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e.V. on the HZB website

Picture: Bessy II at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.

Young talent from LNLS awarded at international conference

Young talent from LNLS awarded at international conference

Work on components for Sirius was elected best poster.

Gabriel Vinícius Claudiano, member of the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), was awarded the prize for best poster in the category “young engineer under 30” during the tenth edition of the MEDSI (Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation) conference, which was held in Paris, France, between June 25th and 29th.

Gabriel’s work is related to the development of components for the beamlines of the new Brazilian synchrotron light source, Sirius. These components are located at the interface between the storage ring and the beamlines, which is called front-end, and their function is to absorb part of the synchrotron light beam to protect sensitive equipment.

>Read more on the LNLS website

Picture: Gabriel Vinícius Claudiano.