Careers in STEM – Lightsources.org

Reflecting on an incredible week of connections at SRI2024

2024/09/042024/09/05

Last week, Lightsources.org travelled to Hamburg to be part of one of the community’s most popular events, the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI) conference. The SRI conference is regarded as the world’s most important exchange forum for experimenters, developers and operators of large X-ray radiation sources.

SRI2024 was organised by DESY and the European XFEL and attracted over 1000 experts from all over the world. The conference gave Lightsources.org the perfect opportunity to celebrate its 20^th Anniversary with scientists and technical experts from facilities, academic institutes and companies within the international light source community.

As a collaboration of science communicators, Lightsources.org organised a series of events and activities aimed at raising the profile of its members, which include 24 synchrotrons and 8 Free Electron Lasers. An additional focus involved recognising the science and science communication talents of conference attendees through two poster prize competitions.

Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Head of Communications, Engagement and Impact at Diamond and Vice-Chair of Lightsources.org, comments, “It was a real honour for Lightsources.org to be part of this wonderful conference. Our collaboration of science communicators exists to provide one voice for the light source community. It was inspiring to meet so many delegates and exhibitors who share our passion for these amazing facilities and the incredible science they deliver.”

Lightsources.org is particularly keen to support early career professionals and, to support this goal, two lunchtime sessions were offered during the conference. The session on Wednesday, which was chaired by Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, focused on career insights and development with a panel of senior leaders including Gianluigi Botton, Diamond Light Source, Sakura Pascarelli, the European XFEL, Britta Redlich, HFML – FELIX and LEAPS, Laurent Chapon, Argonne (APS) and Gerd Materlik, UCL.

The second session on Thursday put the spotlight on science communication and gave participants the opportunity to practice and develop their communication skills. Attendees were supported by science communicators including Silvana Westbury, Lightsources.org, Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Diamond/Lightsources.org, Cindy Lee and Andrea Taylor, Berkeley ( ALS) and Synchrotron Radiation News, Miriam Arrell, the Paul Scherrer Institute (SLS / Swiss FEL) and Florentine Krawatzek,Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (BESSY II). During the session, attendees were given a series of tips to support them with their science communication journeys. The facilitators also highlighted the fact that getting involved in science communication is a great way to support professional career development through transferable skills. When individuals find the right kind of science communication for them, it also adds an extra element of fun to their professional life.

Image: The Lightsources.org Team on the stand at SRI2024 (left to right) Silvana Westbury, Lightsources.org, Miriam Arrell, the Paul Scherrer Institute (SLS / Swiss FEL), Florentine Krawatzek,Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (BESSY II), Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Diamond/Lightsources.org, and Andrea Taylor, Berkeley( ALS) and Synchrotron Radiation News, and Cindy Lee, Berkeley ( ALS).
Credit: Lightsources.org

During the poster sessions, Lightsources.org organised the judging of posters that had been entered into the science and science communication poster prize competitions. Christian Schroer from DESY and Andy Dent from Diamond judged the SRI 2024 Science Poster Prize, while Cindy Lee from Berkeley Lab (ALS) and Miriam Arrell from Paul Scherrer Institute (SLS / SwissFEL) judged the SRI 2024 Science Communication Poster Prize, which was in memoriam to Till Mundzeck.

The Prize Award Session took place on Friday afternoon and the following winners were announced:

SRI 2024 Science Poster Prize

The first prize went to Renan Ramalho Geraldes from Sirius at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) for the poster “The Loading Chamber of the SAPOTI Cryogenic Nanoprobe at the CARNAUBA Beamline at Sirius/LNLS”.

Judges comments, “Outstanding development of cryogenic stage and sample exchange for nano imaging which has wide applicability to other facilities.”

The second prize was given to Tang Li from DESY for the poster “Real-life challenges of single-beam ptychography vs. multi-beam ptychography”.

Judges comments, “Clever use of a mask and analysis to generate multi-beams to enable “parallel” ptychography to image larger areas.”

The third prize went to Jan Lukas Dresselhaus from the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging for the poster with the title “Aberration corrected multilayer Laue lenses enable focusing to below 3 nanometres”.

Judges comments, “Further application of calculating and using an array of refractive phase correctors to improve the focus from MLL’s.”

Image: SRI2024 Poster Prize winners: (Left to Right) Renan Ramalho Geraldes, Amna Majid, David Meier, Tang Li and Jan Lukas Dresselhaus with Lightsources.org Project Manager Silvana Westbury.
Credit: European XFEL, Frank Poppe

Honourable mentions went to:

Amna Majid Fault detection in Ion Pumps at the European XFEL

Judges comments, “Very nice presentation and useful use of AI for detection of ion-pump failures with wide applicability”

Dawit Hailu ForwardGAN, an Unsupervised Forward Operator-based Generative Adversarial Network for solving Inverse Problems: The the Near-Field Phase Retrieval Problem

Judges comments, “Helpful work showing how a Generative Network can be used to solve the phase retrieval problem with limited data.”

Qais Saadeh Optical Constants Determination for Soft X-ray/EUV Optics: Refined Optical Data for Rhodium

Judges comments, “Very information poster on new measurements on the Rh optical constants in VUV range which are highly relevant to the silicon manufacturing industry.”

Zeynep Reyhan Öztürk TXPES – A new soft X-ray spectroscopy beamline at the SESAME synchrotron

Judges comments, “Poster showing the excellent design for the new Turkish beamline to be built at Sesame.”

SRI 2024 Science Communication Poster Prize (in memoriam Till Mundzeck)

Jan Lukas Dresselhaus also won the Science Communication Poster Prize. The second prize was given to Amna Majid from European XFEL for the poster with the title “Fault detection in Ion Pumps at the European XFEL”. And the third prize went to David Meier from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for his poster with the title “Offset finding of beamline parameters on the METRIXS beamline at BESSY II”. The SRI 2024 Science Communication Poster Prize (Public voting) was awarded to Emmanuel Aneke (APS) for the poster “Simulation and Measurement of Horizontal Emittance via Undulator High Harmonics at the APS-U”.

Honourable mentions went to:

Sonal Ramesh Patel (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin)

Rafael Celestre (Soleil)

Ibrahym Dourki (EuXFEL)

Emmanuel Aneke (Argonne)

Dawit Hailu (Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon)

Judges comments:

We are so pleased with the entries in the science communication contest. First, it takes courage to put yourself forward, particularly when communication has not been part of traditional academic training in sciences. Second, we saw a lot of good poster designs and heard a lot of great communication strategies in the presentations over the past three days. You all have a lot to be proud of.

Some highlights included:

-font size and color choices that allowed us to easily read the text

-creative use of white space and graphics

-clear visual and verbal markers that helped us to orientate ourselves

– a clear outline of the big picture

– when participants checked in with us to see if we were following

– clever use of humour and analogies that brought the science alive.

Both poster judges, Cindy Lee and Miriam Arrell, would be happy to stay in touch and offer critique. You can contact them via email at cindylee@lbl.gov and miriam.arrell@psi.ch. To help refresh their memories, please include a photo of yourself as well as your poster. That way, they can remember your presentation and offer specific feedback on your poster.

The SRI 2024 Science Communication Poster Prize honours Till Mundzeck, who was an inspiring science communicator and author of books, who worked within DESY’s public relations team in Hamburg. He was a highly valued member of the Lightsources.org collaboration until he died recently. Till’s enthusiasm for good science and communication was infectious.

Jumpei Yamada from Osaka University, Japan, and Agostino Marinelli from the National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC, USA, were honoured for their important contributions to advance research using free electron X-ray lasers.

FELs of Europe Award

Jumpei Yamada of Osaka University, Japan, was awarded with the FELs of Europe Award for his work on “Ultimate focusing of X-ray free-electron laser down to 7×7 nm spot for achieving 10²² W/cm² intensity”. Free electron lasers are machines where accelerated electrons are jointly forced to emit a very brilliant light. Particularly, the emitted X-ray light has developed into a unique tool for research: Scientists from all over the world use this extremely brilliant light for their research: from medical research to nanotechnology.

Kai-Siegbahn-Prize 2024

Agostino Marinelli of the National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC, U.S., was awarded with the “Kai-Siegbahn-Prize 2024” for his pioneering development of attosecond X-ray free electron lasers and their application to ultrafast X-ray science at the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC. The prize was established in 2009 in honour of Kai Siegbahn, the physics Nobel Prize winner 1981 and founder of the journal “Nuclear Instruments and Methods A” (NIM A).

The next SRI conference will be held in 2027 in Brazil.

Image: Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke (left) chairing the Lightsources.org careers session with panel members (left to right), Britta Redlich, HFML – FELIX and LEAPS, Gianluigi Botton, Diamond Light Source, Sakura Pascarelli, the European XFEL, Gerd Materlik, UCL and Laurent Chapon, Argonne (APS).

Credit: Lightsources.org

Greetings from our global light source community!

2024/01/222024/01/23

Greetings from around the light sources community

A common feature of all light sources is that they attract staff from a global community of scientists, engineers, computer scientists, project managers, administrators, science communicators, STEM students etc.

As you walk around synchrotron and free electron laser facilities you will hear many different languages being spoken. International customs and cuisines are discussed alongside the intricacies of the machine and the wide variety of scientific experiments.

Here, we present an international greeting as we start celebrations to mark the 20th Anniversary of Lightsources.org. If you are interested in job offers at synchrotrons and free electron lasers, check out our careers section. It’s updated on a daily basis! Careers at light sources around the world – https://lightsources.org/careers/

Meet Xiaoqian Chen, NSLS-II Beamline Scientist

2023/10/102023/11/02

Xiao leads the quantum materials program at NSLS-II’s Coherent Hard X-Ray Scattering beamline

You’ve already spent a few years at Brookhaven, starting in 2016. What brought you back to the Laboratory?

My history with the Laboratory goes back to when I was a user at the original National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). I was in graduate school, and my group had our own beamline at NSLS, X1B. I was the person maintaining that beamline, so I came to know many people here.

When I became a postdoc, I decided to join the x-ray scattering group in Brookhaven’s Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department because we shared the same research interests and coherent x-ray science was emerging. I joined when the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering (CSX) beamline at NSLS-II had just achieved first light. I was able to participate in the first experiments there, and that was my postdoc work.

I then took a postdoc position at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and worked more on coherent x-ray science. After three years, I was offered a position at CHX to lead the quantum materials program.

What does your role at CHX entail? What kind of research do you do?

My research, in a broad sense, is in the field of condensed matter physics, looking at quantum materials. These are materials that have behaviors that are very heavily guided by quantum mechanical effects. For example, some have superconducting properties, and some have interesting magnetism. With help from my postdoc, I am looking into discovering new quantum effects in materials, and our work is supported by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) grant. Apart from my own research, I prepare an environment at CHX for scientists in our community to perform coherent x-ray experiments and study dynamical properties in their materials.

At CHX, we use coherent x-ray photons to track the dynamics inside materials. We can detect electron dynamics as fast as the nanosecond time scale with our recent detector installation. I’m currently trying to detect and study dynamics in materials that take place at that time scale. The ultimate goal is to find a signature of quantum entanglement. This property is a specific type of interaction between electrons; they show very different behavior from electrons in classical materials.

There are some other new capabilities that we are excited for users to experience. We have added a resonance scattering capability to look at element-specific information. For example, we can look at electrons in specific orbitals. We also added low temperature capability with a new cryostat that can chill samples to 4K. That’s very cold, and it will be very useful for studying quantum materials.

Read more on the NSLS-II website

Image: Xiaoqian Chen is a physicist and beamline scientist with the complex scattering program at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. At NSLS-II’s Coherent Hard X-ray Scattering (CHX) beamline, she studies materials with quantum behaviors and guides users in their investigations into quantum materials.

Diamond launches major recruitment campaign at AAAS

2023/03/032023/03/06

Coinciding with Women’s History Month, and in the lead up to International Women’s Day, four of Diamond’s STEM champions launch a new recruitment drive

Today, at the prestigious AAAS science conference in Washington DC, Diamond will unveil plans for its biggest recruitment campaign since its inception 20 years ago. Dozens of new roles will be available in the coming year and some examples of the variety of STEM careers will be showcased and celebrated by an all-women lineup from the Diamond team. This recruitment drive aims to ensure the facility has the knowledge and expertise required to help plan and deliver world leading science for the next decade and beyond.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day (8^th March), Diamond’s workshop will shine a light on career pathways in world-changing science. A panel of four women from Diamond will address how their work across science and engineering helps to address 21^st century challenges from energy research to pandemic preparedness. They will share their professional journeys and insights into their roles. Job roles range from scientists, engineers, software experts, technicians to professional roles all essential to enabling the most brilliant science performed by scientists at Diamond.

Through part of the next decade, Diamond will deliver an upgrade programme called Diamond-II. To continue delivering the world-changing science that Diamond leads and enables, Diamond-II is a project that will deliver a new machine and new beamlines with a comprehensive series of upgrades to optics, detectors, sample environments, sample delivery capabilities and computing.

Details on the panel:

The workshop panel will feature Dr Lorraine Bobb – Head of Diagnostics Group; Sarah Macdonell – Head of Beamline Systems Engineering; Dr Chidinma Okolo – Beamline Scientist at B24 and Dr Lucy Saunders – Beamline Scientist at I11. It will be chaired by Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke – Head of Impact, Communications and Engagement, with an interactive Q&A session facilitated by Molly Pekarik Fry – Web and Digital Content Manager.

Read more on the Diamond website

Image: L to R the Diamond Light Source Panel : Dr Chidinma Okolo – Beamline Scientist at B24; Molly Pekarik Fry – Web and Digital Content Manager, Sarah Macdonell – Head of Beamline Systems Engineering; Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke – Head of Impact, Communications and Engagement; Dr Lorraine Bobb – Head of Diagnostics Group; Dr Lucy Saunders – Beamline Scientist at I11

Lightsources.org holds first collaboration meeting since the pandemic

2023/03/012023/03/03

This week, science communicators from the across the US, Europe and Asia met in person in Washington DC for the first time since 2019. The two day collaboration meeting involved discussion on a range of topics including coordinating remote access and open data discussions at a global level, measuring the impact of the work that is done at light sources, and how to navigate and successfully move forward with social media.

Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Diamond’s Head of Impact, Communication and Engagement, comments “After 19 years of working together to create one voice for the brightest science, the lightsources.org collaboration is proud to now have 24 members from across the world. We had the privilege to visit the White House yesterday before meeting at the University of California’s Washington Center. The British Embassy in Washington DC hosted Day 2 of our annual meeting and we were delighted to welcome Dava Keavney (Program Manager for X-ray Light Sources at U.S. Department of Energy – Scientific User Facilities), Branden Brough (Director, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office), Quinn Spadola (Deputy Director, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office) and Matthew Diasio (Science and Innovation Policy Advisor Science and Innovation Policy Advisor Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), to join our discussions and help us explore new ways to reach our target audiences. As a collaboration, we are very grateful to everyone who supports light source science as our work is key to help address 21st century global challenge…together for a better world!”

Silvana Westbury, Project Manager for Lightsources.org, adds “In my role, I have the privilege of working with science communications colleagues from around the global light source community. Meeting in person has been hugely valuable as we have been able to bounce ideas off each other and devote quality time to sharing best practice and supporting members who need help in a specific areas of science communication.”

Lightsources.org is also attending the AAAS Meeting in Washington (2 – 5 March 2023) and has a booth with Diamond Light Source, the UK’s synchrotron science facility, and ExPaNDS, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Photon and Neutron Data Service.

Career opportunities are currently plentiful within facilities around the world, particularly those who are planning their upgrade projects. For those who are attending the AAAS Meeting, in person or online, details of Diamond’s workshop featuring women who have succeeded in STEM careers can be found here

Synchrotron science through board games!

2022/07/012022/07/21

Learning how to communicate your science is an essential part of any scientist’s career. Whether for an interview, a presentation or for sharing your latest research with family and friends, there are many routes to explore. However, have you ever considered a board game…?

It is definitely an unusual form of public engagement, but it is one that has been an incredibly rewarding experience for us all. The ‘we’ here is Mark Basham, Claire Murray (both from Diamond Light Source) and Matthew Dunstan (University of Cambridge), who had never worked together before this project. However, we quickly became good friends and collaborators in the process of creating our board game to engage teenagers in the life of a scientist and in STEM careers. The game is based on the floor plan of Diamond Light Source and every experiment is one that has been carried out there. We playtested our game with lots of family and friends before taking it to our target audience – teenagers between 12-18 who may not be aware of the full variety of careers in STEM available to them. We learned so much that we have actually just published a paper sharing the design process, evaluation and results and our approach to inclusive design. Check out the Diamond website to learn more about it!

Photon Science: A career of creativity & intriguing questions awaits

2021/11/252021/11/25

Markus Ilchen is a physicist at FLASH, the world’s first short wavelength free-electron laser. FLASH is located at DESY in Hamburg. The DESY campus is a ‘small city’ of science offering a versatile and vibrant culture for a wide variety of professions and scientific disciplines. In his #LightSourceSelfie, Markus gives you a peek into some of the highlights on campus, describing some of its history and how FLASH’s unique capabilities will help him to study the chirality (handedness) of molecules. Contributing to solving the mystery behind what chirality does in our universe, drives him and his colleagues.

For those starting out in photon science, Markus has this advice, “Enjoy the great choice! But still of course find your sweet spot. Find your place where you have fun; where you can be yourself; where you can work with nice people; where you are working on intriguing questions; where you can be creative and enjoy the freedom of science in a way that, for one, it keeps you up at night but in a good way.”

#LightSourceSelfies Monday Montage – Learning

2021/11/152022/05/23

This #MontageMontage features Kathryn Janzen from the Canadian Light Source (CLS), Nina Vyas and Nina Perry from Diamond Light Source, and Aerial Murphy-Leonard, who conducts experiments at CHESS. Learning through experience is the best way when it comes to experiments at synchrotrons and Free Electron Lasers. As Nina Vyas reflects, “It is very nice to learn new things and its quite easy to pick up lots of new skills in science.”