Berkeley Lab

2017 UEC Election

Voting opened on December 18, 2017 for three new members of the Molecular Foundry UEC. Please view the candidate details below and vote using the embedded ballot form at the bottom of the page. Voting closes at 5:00 pm PST on December 29. Results will be announced in early January.

PI-level Candidates

Xiaodan Gu, Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: My research efforts benefit considerably from access to facilities and staff scientist’s expertise in the Molecular Foundry (Synthesis, nanofabrication, and Imaging), as well as X-ray scattering capabilities at the ALS (11.0.1.2 and 7.3.3). I see UEC membership as an opportunity to give back to the MF, which has been an integral part of my research for many years, and to promote communication, involvement, and productivity for all users. As a member, I will also draw on my experiences as an active user at MF, CFNM (ORNL), ALS, SSRL (SLAC), and HIFR (ORNL). A particular focus will be to serve as an advocate for those underrepresented minority students by developing engagement for ESPCoR jurisdictions that previously are not heavily involved and benefitted from the MF research programs, and bring in more collaborative works between ALS and MF. My experience as a Molecular Foundry (MF) user has taken on several forms, beginning in 2011 as a visiting graduate student user at MF and Advanced Light Source (ALS), continued to evolve in 2017 when I became an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at Univ. of Southern Mississippi. I obtained my Ph.D. polymer physic with Prof. Thomas P. Russell at UMASS Amherst and worked at Stanford and SSRL for postdoc work with Prof. Zhenan Bao and Michael F. Toney. My current research is focused on understanding the polymer physic and morphology for organic electronics such as solar cells, transistors, and sensors. We are particularly interested in the processing aspect of those functional materials, and bring new functionality, such as mechanical flexibility, magnetic and spin property, to those materials.
  • Biographical Sketch: My experience as a Molecular Foundry (MF) user has taken on several forms, beginning in 2011 as a visiting graduate student user at MF and Advanced Light Source (ALS), continued to evolve in 2017 when I became an assistant professor in the School of Polymer Science and Engineering at Univ. of Southern Mississippi. I obtained my Ph.D. polymer physic with Prof. Thomas P. Russell at UMASS Amherst and worked at Stanford and SSRL for postdoc work with Prof. Zhenan Bao and Michael F. Toney. My current research is focused on understanding the polymer physic and morphology for organic electronics such as solar cells, transistors, and sensors. We are particularly interested in the processing aspect of those functional materials, and bring new functionality, such as mechanical flexibility, magnetic and spin property, to those materials.

Morten Madsen, Associate Professor, SDU NanoSYD, University of Southern Denmark

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: During the last 2 years, I have been working together with staff members at the NCEM facility (Dr. Andreas Schmid, Dr. Roberto dos Reis, Dr. André Cauduro), on joint work on crystallization of metal oxide thin films formed from sputtering. The work has this year led to 2 publications (in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces and Ultramicrscopy), where complex high work function molybdenum oxide thin films have been developed and characterized in depth, using both TEM and LEEM. This work holds strong promises in PV technology (paper in preparation), and the aim is to pursue this further in an extension of this collaboration. I have a general experience in developing electronic and optoelectronic devices based on semiconducting thin-films. In 2010-2011, I worked with high performance transistors from III-V nanoscale membranes at the Javey research lab, EECS, UC Berkeley, CA. In 2011, I established the OPV group at SDU NanoSYD, the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where we work on improving the performance of organic and hybrid solar cells. In 2014, I was appointed Associate Professor at SDU, and the work in the OPV group (currently 12-15 students/researchers) have since then included a strong focus on interface layers and device stability, both for organic, hybrid and currently also silicon (via collaboration with Prof. Javey, UC Berkeley) photovoltaics technology. In my group, we also work with device up-scaling through Roll-to-Roll (R2R) production technology, for which I am heading the R2R facility at SDU. The facility includes also R2R sputtering of metal-oxides, for which collaboration with NCEM has been initiated. In addition, I am leading 2 European projects (FP7 ITN THINFACE and Interreg VA RollFlex) and several national projects. I hold around 50 publications in the above topics, and I am editor on the book “Devices from Hybrid and Organic Materials”, which is currently in press.
  • Biographical Sketch: I have a general experience in developing electronic and optoelectronic devices based on semiconducting thin-films. In 2010-2011, I worked with high performance transistors from III-V nanoscale membranes at the Javey research lab, EECS, UC Berkeley, CA. In 2011, I established the OPV group at SDU NanoSYD, the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), where we work on improving the performance of organic and hybrid solar cells. In 2014, I was appointed Associate Professor at SDU, and the work in the OPV group (currently 12-15 students/researchers) have since then included a strong focus on interface layers and device stability, both for organic, hybrid and currently also silicon (via collaboration with Prof. Javey, UC Berkeley) photovoltaics technology. In my group, we also work with device up-scaling through Roll-to-Roll (R2R) production technology, for which I am heading the R2R facility at SDU. The facility includes also R2R sputtering of metal-oxides, for which collaboration with NCEM has been initiated. In addition, I am leading 2 European projects (FP7 ITN THINFACE and Interreg VA RollFlex) and several national projects. I hold around 50 publications in the above topics, and I am editor on the book “Devices from Hybrid and Organic Materials”, which is currently in press.

Frances Allen, Research Scientist, UC Berkeley

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I have been a Foundry user for 10 years, at NCEM and at the Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures facilities. I am a strong believer in open interdisciplinary research and in bringing together expertise and perspective from researchers across the board. I work closely with scientists from academia, national labs and industry, and through my current work managing the Helium Ion Microscope lab on the UC Berkeley campus I also have direct experience with providing user support. As a member of the UEC I can draw on my years as a Foundry user and the perspectives I have gained to support communications between TMF users and leadership. In particular, I look forward to engaging directly with users and I will strive to advocate effectively on your behalf.
  • Biographical Sketch: I began my research career with a PhD in experimental physics in Berlin, Germany, in the world of highly charged ions and their interactions with matter. Part of this research was conducted at Lawrence Berkeley Lab during which time I was also a user of the FIB microscope at NCEM. Returning to the Foundry as a postdoc I turned to electron beams to develop new techniques to study soft matter by TEM. In my current position as Research Scientist at UC Berkeley I have completed the loop back to ion beams, now of a highly focused helium variety for imaging and nanofabrication. Along the way I have worked on a wide range of projects from lasers to cryo and from materials to life science, in large part due to the wealth of expertise and instrumentation available at the Foundry and at Berkeley as a whole. I maintain a strong link to the Foundry through my own user proposals and in a supporting role to colleagues and collaborators.

Alberto Salleo, Associate Professor, Stanford University

  • Representing Facilities: Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: I have been a MF user for several years, my group’s research has benefitted greatly from the facilities and more importantly from the MF community. I will be happy to lend my experience as user and help support other users, academic and industrial, in taking advantage of the MF’s resources in the most productive way.
  • Biographical Sketch: Alberto Salleo is currently an Associate Professor of Materials Science at Stanford University. Alberto Salleo graduated as a Fulbright Fellow with a PhD in Materials Science from UC Berkeley in 2001. From 2001 to 2005 Salleo was first post-doctoral research fellow and successively member of research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. In 2005 Salleo joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013. Salleo is a Principal Editor of MRS Communications since 2011.
    While at Stanford, Salleo won the NSF Career Award, the 3M Untenured Faculty Award, the SPIE Early Career Award and the Tau Beta Pi Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford’s highest teaching honor. He has been a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science since 2015.”

Hector Calderon, Professor, IPN-ESFM, Mexico

  • Representing Facilities: The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I have been using the infrastructure at NCEM since 1986, I know how the facility works and I can help now by selecting and discussing about proposals and its value. I understand that good quality proposals benefit everyone, the facility and its purpouse and the users.
  • Biographical Sketch: Materials scientists with a strong activity in the relationship between atomic distribution and properties of materials and nanomaterials. AT the moment mostly involved with sustainable energy sources such as the production of solar fuels. Past activities in health related subjects (drug targeted delivery) and mechanical properties.

Rehan Kapadia, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Inorganic Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: I have been working with the Foundry nearly continuously since 2010 when I was a graduate student at Berkeley. After moving to USC, I have continued to work as a PI on Foundry user projects. I have benefited tremendously from my collaborations with the Foundry, which have resulted in many publications over the years. Serving on the UEC would enable me to give back to the Foundry.
  • Biographical Sketch: Rehan joined the faculty of the University of Southern California in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering in July 2014. He received his bachelors in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013. During his time at Berkeley, he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and winner of the David J. Sakrison Memorial Prize for outstanding research. Recently he was selected as an Air Force Young Investigator. His interests lie at the intersection of material science and electrical engineering, with a focus on developing next-generation electronic and photonic devices as well as the material growth techniques necessary for scalable, cost-effective manufacturing of these devices. Specifically, he is an expert on the device physics and fabrication of nanostructured devices, such as solar cells, high-performance III-V transistors, as well as non-epitaxial growth of III-V thin films and nanostructures.

Abraham Wolcott, Assistant Professor, San Jose State University

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Inorganic Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement:  The Molecular Foundry serves as an invaluable resource for expertise, access to instrumentation and researcher training to students and faculty in the Cal State University system. The burgeoning relationship between primarily undergraduate research institutions and DOE research facilities should be nurtured and expanded. As a SJSU faculty member I am keenly aware that the diversity of SJSU students is an asset and that true diversity broadening in STEM must happen by connecting our students to state-of-the-art facilities and the scientific community at large. As a UEC member I would continue to advocate for Cal State institutions (SJSU) and the many students in the Cal State system who would benefit from research at The Molecular Foundry and other DOE institutions.
  • Biographical Sketch: I am a physical chemist and was trained at UC Santa Cruz and received my PhD in 2009 with research advisor Jin Z. Zhang. As a graduate student I would conduct research at NCEM at LBNL and LLNL in order to advance my research projects of semiconductor nanomaterials for biological labeling and energy conversion. At that time I quickly understood the value of conducting research away from one’s home institution in order to advance scientific investigations. From 2009-2011 as an NSF postdoctoral fellow I worked with surface scientist Xiao Yang Zhu at UT Austin studying the surface structure of semiconductors and their ultrafast charge transfer processes. From 2011-2014 I worked as a joint postdoctoral scientist at MIT/Columbia with Profs Jon Owen and Dirk Englund on nanoscale diamond and the nitrogen vacancy center. As an Assistant Professor at SJSU I am continuing the fundamental study of diamond surface chemistry with applications in cancer detection. I host a group of 15 researchers who are biologists, chemists and engineers. 11 of the 15 students are from underrepresented groups or are economically disadvantaged. Our strategy is to use a host of techniques (including high resolution electron microscopy and surface sensitive synchrotron techniques) to discover new chemical methodologies for the facile chemical activation of diamond. Diamond in turn hosts a spin-sensitive defect (nitrogen vacancy center) which we wish to exploit for biological detection modalities. The strategy of providing research experiences at TMF and SSRL to undergraduate students has shown positive effects with my research students entering graduate programs with a host of advanced skills that strengthened their applications and advanced their burgeoning scientific careers.

Gao Liu, Group Leader, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: Dr. Gao Liu, has been working with TMF since 2003, first at NCEM, then at the organic facilities. Dr. Liu currently is the group leader for the Applied Energy Materials group in the ESDR division of the ETA area. Working with TMF, Liu’s group has generated numerous peer-reviewed publications and 1 R&D 100 Award in 2015. Dr. Liu current is an active user of the NCEM and organic facilities to aid his research in electrical energy storage research. Dr. Liu will not only be able to provide critical insights for the current operation of the facility, but also help to strengthen TMF’s involvement in the energy technology development.
  • Biographical Sketch: Dr. Gao Liu is the Group Leader of the Applied Energy Materials Group in the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division of the Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, specialized in energy storage R&D. Dr. Liu has over 20 years of experience in developing materials and system engineering for electrical energy storage, and has led research projects for the U.S. Department of Energy and industry. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 20 patents and patent applications. He has received numerous awards from his work on electrochemical energy storage materials and systems. The most recent awards include R&D100 Award in 2013 for conductive polymer for lithium-ion battery application, and FMC Scientific Achievement Award in 2014 for understanding fundamental of prelithiation, and R&D 100 Award in 2015 for high capacity lithium ion anode design. Dr. Liu is the point-of-contact for LBNL and board member for the California battery consortium – Calcharge. Dr. Liu also serves as board members and scientific advisors for industry.

Annelise Barron, Associate Professor, Stanford University

  • Representing Facilities: Biological Nanostructures, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I have been actively working at the Foundry for the past year, and have just renewed my two user proposals. The unique resources available in the Biological Nanostructures and NCEM facilities are amazing to use, and I would be happy to serve on the UEC to help ensure their continued good stewardship.
  • Biographical Sketch: I have been on the faculty at Stanford University for 10 years, and was a professor at Northwestern University for 10 years before that. Since 1996, I have been actively involved in peptoid-related research, applying them as mimics of helical peptides and in bioanalysis as well. I am excited to continue to expand upon this work in the upcoming years. My Ph.D. in chemical engineering is from U.C. Berkeley, which is strongly affiliated with the Molecular Foundry. My research interests are broad and I believe my scientific background and expertise is well suited to the spectrum of research going on at the Foundry.

Manashi Nath, Associate Professor, Missouri University of Science & Technology

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Theory of Nanostructured Materials, Inorganic Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: Our research with designing new high-efficiency electrocatalysts for energy conversion processes will benefit largely from in situ surface analytical techniques as well as computational and simulation studies carried out in the molecular foundry. At the same time being involved in the foundry user executive committee and in the networking sessions with other facility users, will allow us to learn more about and design new experimental techniques to study these functional surfaces both in situ and in operando that will be mutually beneficial to the research project as well as development and expansion of the foundry facilities.
  • Biographical Sketch: A. ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT Sep 2014 – current: Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Missouri S&T, Rolla. Sep 2014 – current: Adjunct Associate Professor, Materials Science & Engineering, Missouri S&T. Aug 2008 – Aug 2014 – Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Missouri S&T. B. CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES – Developing novel high-performance electrocatalysts for water oxidation/reduction and full water splitting at low overpotentials. – Patterned growth of vertically ordered nanowire arrays through confined electrodeposition and their integration into devices like photovoltaics, energy generation and storage, thermoelectric, sensorial and other electronic devices. – Developing novel catalysts for conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals. – Designed synthesis of multi-functional magnetic nanomaterials for biomedical (magnetic fluid hyperthermia), catalysis and sensorial applications. – Synthesis, characterization and property studies of superconducting nanostructures and investigation of the effect of interfacial pressure and confinement on the properties of Fe-based superconductors. C. SOURCES OF FUNDING NSF-DMR: “Investigating Mixed Metal Chalcogenides for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation: An Integrated Experimental and Theoretical Approach towards Materials Innovation”; PI 70%. Funds awarded: $303,994; Period: 08/01/17 – 07/31/20. ACS-PRF (New Directions): “Study of Transition Metal Chalcogenide Nanostructures As Efficient Oxygen Reduction Catalysts”; PI 100%; Funds awarded: $110,000; Period: 09/01/14 – 08/31/17. Missouri Innovators Grant: “Multifunctional Magnetic Nanomaterials for Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer”; PI 100%; Funds awarded: $35,000; Period: 03/01/16 – 02/28/18. NSF-MRI: “Acquisition of an Electron-beam Lithography System for Nanofabrication and Nanoscience Research and Education”; co-PI 20%; Funds awarded: $840,000; Period: 09/01/15 – 08/31/17.”

Huizhong Xu, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication
  • Personal Statement: I joined the faculty of San Francisco State University last Fall and recently became a user of the Foundry’s Nanofabrication Facility. Prior to that, I was at St. John’s University and a user of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. I served as a member of the CFN Users’ Executive Committee (UEC) for the past five years. If elected as a member of the Molecular Foundry UEC, I will work with other UEC members on issues of critical importance to the Foundry to help make it a great community for users to conduct research.
  • Biographical Sketch: Huizhong Xu received his B.S. in applied physics from Fudan University, Shanghai in 1997 and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004. After working in the group of Watt Webb at Cornell University as a postdoc for a few years, he served as a faculty member at St. John’s University from 2008 to 2016, and joined the faculty at San Francisco State University as Associate Professor of Physics in fall 2016. His current research interests focus on the study of novel optical phenomena in nanostructures of various materials and the development of advanced imaging and spectroscopy techniques to facilitate solving biophysical problems beyond the reach of current technologies. He was a recipient of an NSF CAREER award and served as PI on an NIH R15 grant and co-PI on an S-STEM project at St. John’s University. He is a member of the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Optical Society of America, and Sigma-Xi. He has served as a member of the Users’ Executive Committee of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials of the Brookhaven National Laboratory for the past five years.

Yanbao Ma, Associate Professor, UC Merced

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: Currently, I collaborate with Dr. Jeff Urban. I plan to send a postdoc to condcut research at molecular foundry. I am willing to serve on the UEC.
  • Biographical Sketch: Dr. Ma obtained his Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics from University of California at Los Angeles in 2004. After receiving his Ph. D. degree in mechanical Engineering from UCLA, he joined Micro Systems Lab of UCLA and worked on micro-fluidic systems for biological analysis and biomedical diagnosis. He joined UC Merced as an assistant professor in 2009, and was promoted to an associated professor in 2015. His broad research interests revolve around non-Fourier heat transfer modeling, mesoscale flow simulations, thermal management, and sustainable energy & water technologies.

Judy Yang, Professor, University of Pittsburgh

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: As a significant user of the National Center of Electron Microscopy for the past several years, my research group has benefited considerably from the use of the forefront characterization tools available through the National Center of Electron Microscopy (NCEM). Hence, I am highly interested in serving on the UEC to promote the Molecular Foundry. As a member of the UEC, I will facilitate effective communication and meaningful interactions among the users, potential users, and staff with the leadership of the Molecular Foundry. I also believe in outreach with a focus to attract a diverse pool of young scientists.
  • Biographical Sketch: Judy Yang is the William Kepler Whiteford Professor in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering with a secondary appointment in Physics. She received her Bachelor’s in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and her PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 1993. She then went to the Max-Planck-Institute of Metallforschung, Stuttgart, Germany as a National Science Foundation international post-doctoral fellow. In 1995, she returned to the US as a post-doc and visiting lecturer to the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1999, she joined the engineering faculty at University of Pittsburgh. She has been a visiting scientist at NASA, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2012-2013). She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and founding leader of the focused interest group on “Electron Microscopy in Liquids and Gasses” within the Microscopy Society of America. Her research areas include oxidation, heterogeneous catalysis, nano-materials, gas-surface reactions, and transmission electron microscopy, especially in situ.

Deepti Tanjore, Research Scientist, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: As a research scientist at User Facility-like institute, the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit, I fully understand the value provided by the Molecular Foundry to industry, especially small businesses and start-ups. Several start-ups that work with us required access to some of Molecular Foundry equipment for a few samples. For this, we established a joint user access agreement for mutual access of equipment. This way, the AB-PDU is able to help one of Molecular Foundry’s start-ups and vice-versa. My interest in participating on the UEC is to ensure that Molecular foundry continues to be an unparalleled resource, especially when integrated with other user facilities That have complementary capabilities. I am also interested in understanding the different data types generated at Molecular Foundry.
  • Biographical Sketch: My research is focused on reducing technical risks associated with the commercialization of lab- scale synthetic biology innovations from academia, start-ups, and other entities. Resolving technical issues associated with scale-up expedites the process of positioning innovations in a more investment- conducive zone of the risk-reward spectrum. My team focuses on resolving scale-up issues, producing grams to kilograms level product for testing, generating high-quality data, and performing modeling and economic analyses. Often, scale-up of a technology requires unique solutions. To engender such solutions, my team works in a highly interdisciplinary space, at the intersection of latest developments in synthetic biology, chemical engineering, biochemistry, instrumentation and control systems, statistics, and modeling. I am a research scientist at the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (AB-PDU), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Tian Li, Staff Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab

  • Representing Facilities: The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: Tian (Tony) Li is a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. His work mainly focuses on sub-microsecond, nanoscale transient behavior observed using the dynamic transmission microscope (DTEM) at LLNL. He is also in charge of the TEM facility at LLNL. Tian has been a NCEM user at the Foundry since his started as a post-doctoral researcher at LLNL, performing a wide range of TEM characterizations for many projects. He is eager to serve the Foundry community that has been crucial to his work over the years, and hopes to gain valuable experience in operation of a user facility.
  • Biographical Sketch: Tian Li received his PhD in material science and engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. His PhD work focused on characterization of medium range order in amorphous materials. He started as a post-doc at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) in 2014, using the dynamic transmission electron microscope (DTEM) at LLNL to observe laser crystallization kinetics and defect motion during high speed deformation. Tian became a staff scientist at LLNL in 2017. In addition to continued effort in studying high-speed transformation phenomenon, he is also in charge of the TEM facility at LLNL, providing TEM characterization support for various projects at LLNL.

Postdoc-level Candidates

Alex Sharenko, postdoctoral researcher, LBNL

  •  Representing Facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: My work at the Foundry consists of the development of heat reflecting window coatings to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in hot climates. I’m interested in serving on the User Executive Committee to help build a community of shared knowledge and progress at the Foundry. The Molecular Foundry should be a place ultimately greater than the sum of its parts where diverse people come together to learn from each other and solve important problems. The Foundry has been a rewarding place for me to work and I would like the opportunity to invest in its continued success.
  • Biographical Sketch: I grew up in Atlanta, GA and earned a BS in Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech in 2010. I then moved to California and in 2014 graduated from UC- Santa Barbara with a PhD in Materials Engineering. I was a postdoc at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource for ~1.5 years and then came to LBNL where I have been a postdoc and Molecular Foundry user for a littler over a year.

Michael Whittaker, Postdoc, LBNL

  •  Representing Facilities: The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I’m an NCEM user and advocate for increasing the utilization of electron microscopy in environmental, atmospheric, and life sciences. With some of the best electron microscopes in the world, a major challenge for the Molecular Foundry is making these instruments compatible with a broad range of samples, many of which are too sensitive or difficult to prepare for conventional techniques. I will actively interface with users, especially our industrial colleagues, to identify and address limitations in our current workflows in order to make our microscopes more accessible and broadly effective.
  • Biographical Sketch: Michael Whittaker received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Materials Science at the University of Utah. His doctoral work was with Derk Joester at Northwestern University studying carbonate biomineralization. He is currently a postdoc in Energy Geosciences at LBL working with Ben Gilbert and in Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley under the supervision of Jill Banfield. Michael believes that overcoming challenges to characterization at atomic scale will lead to breakthroughs in both science and technology, and is interested in working with startups and industrial partners to make small-scale investigation a more accessible part of the R&D process.

Xining Zang , Postdoc , UC Berkeley

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Inorganic Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: Since my 2015 I have been working a lot in molecular foundry. Thanks to the generous and kind research staff scientist, I get the access to work in Nano-fabrication, imaging and inorganic facilities, and productively get quite a lot interesting results. I could help with perspective user to get down to details of how to write proposals, get training and become a member of the foundry users family. I would be very honored and happy to serve the foundry users. With the help from Molecular Foundry scientist and the access to foundry facilities, we got one Advanced Material, 3 conference paper published with in the past two years, and a few paper in submission. Deep from my heart, I am really grateful to the opportunity to work in Molecular Foundry, and will be more than willing to help other people working or hoping to work here.
  • Biographical Sketch: I study materials science during my undergraduate in Shanghai Jiao Tong university, but my PhD major is MEMS/NANO in mechanical engineering department. My phd research was trying to employ 2D materials in MEMS, which still request heavy access and contents of materials which we do not really have in own group. Molecular Foundry enables me to really perform my phd search on assembly of 2D materials applied in sensing and energy storage. I have been working with quite a couple of really nice and intelligent staff scientists and their students, including Dr Nate Hohman, Dr Paul Ashby, Dr Adam Schwartzberg, DrJim Schuck , and Dr Jeff Urban . I also greatly appreciate the training from other scientist, including Tev , Tracy, and Liana. The proposal in Foundry also bridge me to the access of GIWAX/GISAS in Advanced Light Source (ALS), which is also very helpful and essential for my project on self-assembly of transition metal dichalcogenide.

Sneha Jani, Postdoctoral Fellow, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Biological Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: I use the microbiology, molecular biology, and microscopy facilities on the Biological Nanostructures floor to construct and characterize bacterial strains that are being used to develop living materials. I enjoy working with people from diverse backgrounds and this is primarily why I am interested in being a part of the UEC. I hope to increase my interactions with such individuals and learn more about their groundbreaking research and experimental needs.
  • Biographical Sketch: Sneha Jani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the groups of Kathleen Ryan and Caroline Ajo-Franklin. She is currently identifying factors that govern biofilm formation and persistence in the oligotrophic bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. Her work aims to aid the assembly of novel hybrid living materials.Sneha grew up in the vibrant, cosmopolitan city Mumbai on the western coast of India. Her first tryst with research came during her freshman year in college when she volunteered at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research to study the development of the lateral olfactory tract in mice. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree, Sneha migrated south to Bangalore to learn about the fascinating world of microbes. She worked on characterizing fungal species capable of rapidly degrading bioplastics while completing her Master’s degree. Sneha then moved to the United States to pursue a PhD at Texas A&M University. There, she studied how the physiological responses of individual bacterial cells to environmental cues leads to the establishment of collective behaviors such as the expression of virulence factors and the formation of multicellular biofilms. Sneha hopes to continue expanding her scientific expertise while creating microbe-based solutions to the world’s problems.

Julian Rees, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Sciences, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Biological Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: As an on-site but non-Foundry postdoc, I utilize the Biological Nanostructures facility to synthesize and purify short biopolymers customized for the chelation of lanthanide and actinide ions. My research also involves conjugation of these chelating peptoids to antibodies and other targeting vectors for imaging by confocal microscopy, with ultimate applications in cancer PET imaging and targeted alpha therapy. The Foundry provides unique resources and expertise in support of my research, and I would be eager to participate its continued stewardship by representing early-career chemists on the UEC.
  • Biographical Sketch: Julian Rees completed his B.A. in Chemistry at Goucher College and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Washington in 2016. In his fourth year he was a DAAD graduate scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion in Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany. As an inorganic chemist, he has training in the design, synthesis, and characterization of air-sensitive organic ligands and transition metal complexes, and with a focus in bioinorganic chemistry has extensive experience with a range of advanced spectroscopic techniques as well as fundamental biochemistry. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the BioActinide Chemistry group of Dr. Rebecca Abergel, part of the Chemical Sciences division at LBNL. His work is focused on creating new methods for the selective delivery of radionuclides to cancer cells for both PET imaging and targeted alpha therapy.

Robert Streubel, Postdoctoral researcher, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I have been using the nano fabrication and electron microscopy facilities at the Molecular Foundry since 2015 and established close collaborations with local staff. During this course, we have been strongly engaged in nano structuring, Lorentz microscopy (both experimental and numerical), and recently two-photon lithography. This research is joint by complementary studies at the Advanced Light Source. The persistent transformation of modern science into inter- and multidisciplinary research demands to adapt not only scientific aspects, but also administrative procedures at e.g. user facilities. I see the undergoing changes in administration of both Molecular Foundry and Advanced Light Source as a unique opportunity to improve process and allocation of joint user proposals and user meetings in interest of both users and staff/facility.
  • Biographical Sketch: Since 2015, I am a postdoctoral researcher at Materials Sciences Division utilizing both Advanced Light Source and Molecular Foundry (nano fabrication, transmission electron microscopy). I have been extensively using large-scale user facilities since 2011, including synchrotrons, free electron lasers, electron microscopies and nano fabrication facilities. I highly appreciate the commitment of support and scientific staff that are at the heart of a successful allocated user time. I am standing member of the Advanced Light Source Users’ Executive Committee, which allows me to be involved in redefining present and future practices, such as annual User meetings, user support, management and website. I would like to take advantage of these experiences and contribute to the continued success of the Molecular Foundry user services in particular view to joint user proposals and user meetings, fostering inter- and multidisciplinary research activities.

Won Jun Jo, Postdoc, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: I am working on nanomaterial science projects to fabricate core-shell nanotube arrays as photocatalytic assemblies for solar fuel production and characterize their structure, photoelectrochemical performance, and reaction kinetics. The projects will implement various cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches at the Foundry (e.g., nanofabrication, high-resolution imaging, structure specific time-resolved spectroscopy such as infrared, photoelectrochemical measurements, etc.) to accelerate their progress, whereby I seek to overcome long standing scientific barriers for replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources on the terawatt scale (> 100 TW). By serving on the UEC, I would like share insights gained from the work that will be useful for the general understanding of how to maintain and improve safety, research performance, administration efficiency, etc. of the Foundry.
  • Biographical Sketch: Won Jun Jo received a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from POSTECH and MIT, respectively. He then joined the LBNL where he is currently a postdoctoral research fellow. His research interests encompass photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and electrochemistry. His work focuses on material innovations for the establishment of renewable energy technologies, including artificial photosynthesis, solar cells, and fuel cells. He is the recipient of AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Graduate Student Award, MRS (Materials Research Society) Graduate Student Award, Dow Chemical Travel Award, AIChE Doh Wonsuk Memorial Award, Samsung Fellowship, United Nations Peace Medal for his peace-keeping operations in Lebanon, GE and Fulbright Fellowship, Korea Presidential Science Fellowship, etc.

Sardar Alam, Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Sciences Division, LBNL

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication, Inorganic Nanostructures, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: The role of UEC as a communication channel between existing and prospective users and the Foundry leadership is pivotal for any user facility. With my research spanning three facilities at the Foundry, and past experience in other user facilities, I believe I can bring valuable input to the UEC and play a role in implementing the UEC agenda. Postdocs are at a critical stage in their career but have limited time to achieve their research goals. As a member of UEC, I would like to help formulate policies that aid postdocs in their work at the foundry.
  • Biographical Sketch: Bilal is a postdoc in the Materials Sciences Division at LBNL and, as a Foundry user, works in Emory Chan’s group at the Inorganic Facility. His works is focused on creating new type of liquid cells for in-situ electron microscopy and using them to observe colloidal nanoparticle synthesis. Before joining Berkeley Lab, Bilal received his PhD from Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and masters from Aalto University, Finland, where he also worked as a researcher in the Microfabrication Group. While pursuing his PhD at DTU, he conducted major part of this research on nanowire synthesis as a visiting scholar at IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre. Bilal was a user at DTU Danchip which is the National Center for Micro- and Nanofabrication in Denmark and at Micronova, the National Research Infrastructure for Micro- and Nanotechnology in Finland.

Xueli (Sherry) Zheng, Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University

  • Representing Facilities: Theory of Nanostructured Materials, The National Center for Electron Microscopy
  • Personal Statement: My experience as a Molecular Foundry user has taken on several forms, beginning as a graduate student at University of Toronto, continuing through a postdoc at Stanford University. My access to division of theory of nanostructured materials, the national center for electron microscopy and Advanced Light Source has led to first-authored paper published in Nature Chemistry and Joule. I will advocate for better communication channels (1) between users and Molecular Foundry management, (2) between users and the scientific community, and (3) between users and the public. I believe my postdoc experience here at Stanford University have equipped me with the resources to fulfill these goals.
  • Biographical Sketch: Xueli (Sherry) Zheng is a postdoctoral researcher from Prof. Yi Cui’s group at Stanford University. Her current research is focused on developing new materials for catalysis research and environmental remediation, including water splitting, CO2/N2 reduction. She has built the full set of skills on synthesis of fuels from renewable electricity + CO2 including novel materials chemistry, electrochemical operation and analysis, physic-chemical model development. As a result of these experience, she has published outstanding first-authored scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature Chemistry, Joule, Advanced Materials and Small etc. She also published papers in Nature, Nature Communications, Science Advances etc. as coauthors. Moreover, she is the inventor of three impressive patents related to water splitting and CO2 reduction. She won MRS graduate student award gold in Dec 2016.