Berkeley Lab

2018 UEC Election

Voting opened on December 5, 2018, for seven 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 19. Results will be announced in early January.

PI-level Candidates

Sarbajit Banerjee, Professor, Texas A&M University

  • Representing Facilities: Theory of Nanostructured Materials
  • Personal Statement: My research group has greatly benefited from the Theory of Nanostructured Materials facility with several of my students spending months in residence at the Molecular Foundry. My interest in serving on the User Executive Committee is to give back to this diverse and welcoming community and to ensure that the Molecular Foundry remains the premier facility of its type in the years to come.
  • http://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/banerjee/

David Bell, Professor/Associate Director, Harvard University

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Inorganic Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: We have been performing work with the NCEM , as well as many interactions with foundry staff. I think that NCEM be updated with new facilities and being a board member would be another way to get DOE’s ear about such matters.
  • bell.seas.harvard.edu

Hector Calderon Benavides, Professor, IPN-ESFM Mexico

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I have been using the facilities of the NCEM-Molecular Foundry for quite a long time. I believe I know how it functions and the main goals of both users and center. In the recent past, I have been also working in collaboration with the Center for Artificial Photosynthesis. Thus it is time to give something back to LBNL and save some time to serve at the UEC of the Molecular Foundry.

Jeongmin Hong, Professor, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I am a tenured full professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan China (HUST) and used to work as a postdoc and specialist at UC Berkeley and a user at ALS and the Molecular Foundry since 2012. Currently, I am serving as a PI for several user proposals at LBNL. I am also actively involved as a scientific consultant for government and corporations in US and abroad. The scope of my activities includes engineering research in new materials/devices for future electronics and smart medicine. I am residing about a half of my time here in the Bay Area although I am employed at HUST and so I can dedicate to support the user community.
  • http://oei.hust.edu.cn/info/1127/5466.htm

Min Hwan Lee, Assistant Professor, University of California, Merced

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I am a user of TEM/EELS at the NCEM, and also interested in leveraging the capability of IMN facility. I would like to have myself more involved in the activities of Molecular Foundry by serving on the UEC.
  • http://faculty2.ucmerced.edu/mlee49

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.
  • https://liulab.lbl.gov/

Yanbao Ma, Associate Professor, University of California, Merced

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Theory of Nanostructured Materials, Inorganic Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I co-advised a postdoc who is currently working at the Foundry. I am interested in serving on the UEC to establish collaborative relationships with more research institutes.
  • welab.ucmerced.edu

Morten Madsen, Associate Professor, University of Southern Denmark

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I have (during the last 3 years) a collaboration with Dr. Andreas Schmid at NCEM working on LEEM and TEM characterization of crystalline metal oxide thin films used as contact layers in photovoltaic applications. I have a strong wish for promoting work on new energy materials, including systems used in solar cell and battery technologies.
  • https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/c_nanosyd/forskningsomrader/organic+solar+cells

Sebastian Reyes-Lillo, Assistant Professor, Universidad Andres Bello

  • Representing Facilities: Theory of Nanostructured Materials
  • Personal Statement: During my time as a postdoc I became familiar with the research performed at The Foundry. I plan to improve The Foundry’s accessibility and visibility in Latin America by specifically promoting collaboration with the local research community and encouraging participation of industry in Chile.
  • http://www.matbio.cl

Deepti Tanjore, Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: Biological Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: I am a part of the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Development Unit (ABPDU) at LBNL. We worked with over 40 start ups in the Industrial Biotech sector. Many of them could benefit greatly from accessing the Molecular Foundry. I have been able to make a few referrals. By being on the UEC, I believe that I can help build the bridge between Molecular Foundry and these potential users from Industrial Biotech.
  • http://abpdu.lbl.gov/about-us/our-team/deepti-tanjore/

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 scientic 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.
  • http://www.sjsu.edu/wolcott/

Huizhong Xu, Associate Professor, San Francisco State University

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication
  • Personal Statement: I have been a user of the Foundry nanofabrication facility since the Fall of 2017 and our research has benefited greatly from the facilities and the staff scientists’ expertise as well as opportunities to interact with the broad community of Foundry users. I am interested in being a part of the UEC to serve for the benefits of the broad user community.
  • https://sites.google.com/site/bionanooptics/

Chenui Zhu, Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Representing Facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: I am a staff scientist at the Advanced Light Source, and I’d like to help users at the Foundry and ALS (synchrotron x-ray facility) utilize capabilities at both facilities and be more productive during their visits to LBNL.
  • saxswaxs.lbl.gov

Postdoc-level Candidates

Yung-Ching Chien, Assistant Researcher, University of California, San Francisco

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: I will synthesize peptoids molecules to mimic natural peptides/proteins to improve oral health – to remineralize dentin caries and to prevent oral ulcer. I hope my serving on the UEC can bridge the medical and dental translational research with novel and creative sciences at Molecular Foundry.

Lauren Hughes, Postdoctoral Researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: At the Molecular Foundry, I investigate the microstructure of lithium-based battery materials using a variety of electron microscopy techniques, such as 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy. I am highly interested in serving on the Molecular Foundry User Executive Committee as this committee allows me to use the knowledge I gained as a long-term affiliate user and, now, a post-doctoral researcher at the Foundry to aid in decisions that impact the broader user community.

Jennifer Lin, Research Engineer, Stanford University

  • Representing Facilities: Biological Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I work in the Biological Nanostructures laboratory on the design, synthesis, and purification of biomimetic peptoids that are designed to mimic natural proteins, including antimicrobial peptides and lung surfactant proteins. In new work, we are also performing soft X-ray tomography studies on treated bacteria and cellular mitochondria, to see the changes the antimicrobial peptoids cause. I plan to continue to work at the Foundry in the years to come.
  • https://web.stanford.edu/group/barronlab/

Bo-Hong Liu, Postdoc, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication, Theory of Nanostructured Materials
  • Personal Statement: I am an experimental surface scientist who plans to collaborate with theorists in MF and uses facilities to grow nanostructures. I hope to serve in UEC to be more engaged with the user’s community to discuss and express interests of the community.

Yi-Hsien Lu, Postdoc, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Theory of Nanostructured Materials, Inorganic Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: Yi-Hsien Lu is a postdoc at Materials Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab and has actively worked in the Molecular Foundry through several different user proposals for more than two years. His research works include 5 facilities in the Foundry and also several beamlines at ALS. If selected as a member of UEC, I would like to advocate a better interaction among users, staff scientists, and the management.

Alexander Marras, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Chicago

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: As a grad student, I worked at The Molecular Foundry with Gary Ren extracting 3D information from DNA nanostructures using individual particle electron microscopy tomography and spoke at the User Meeting about this work. Currently, as a postdoc at Univ. of Chicago and Argonne Nat’l Lab, I am working at TMF with Shaul Aloni using liquid cell TEM to analyze in situ polymer assembly dynamics. With a diverse background in mechanical engineering, biomaterials, and polymer physics, I think I can contribute by communicating throughout the Foundry and organizing events and discussions.

Julian Rees, Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • 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.

Xiaohui Song, Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I am working on imaging of nanomaterials in atomic resolution using electron tomography. I would like to serve to help organize annual user meeting as well as participate in Society for Science at User Research Facilities events.

Robert Streubel, Postdoctoral Researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I am an experimental condensed matter physicist with the Materials Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab, and have served the Advanced Light Source UEC since 2016. My research concerns 3D nano magnetism, harnessing and advancing electron and x-ray imaging techniques (including algorithms) at the Molecular Foundry and the Advanced Light Source. As a Foundry UEC member, I will strive to ease and promote collaborations and joint research proposals among user facilities, e.g. the Molecular Foundry and the Advanced Light Source, to diversify research profiles and users.
  • http://streubel.lbl.gov

Younghun Sung, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Berkeley

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Inorganic Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I have been working on interdisciplinary research area based on designing novel functional nanomaterials using colloidal nanocrystals, polymers(synthetic and biopolymers), carbon nanotubes and protein/enzyme. As an active user at the Molecular Foundry(BNC. NCEM) I could help both applying users and scientists at the Foundry to fulfill both of their needs to explore and pursue their research as well as come up with best collaborative results to contribute scientific community.

Jin Tang, Postdoc Fellow, Stanford University

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: At the NCEM and ALS, I have had the chance to work with many staff scientists and users from various research field and places, and learn from, each other, which has led to fruitful discussions and long-lasting collaborations. My goal, as a UEC member, is to expand this synergy into the broader community of NCEM users, for an improved channel of communication across disciplines in line with the UEC’s mission.

Matthijs Andre Van Spronsen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication
  • Personal Statement: As a postdoctoral researcher at the Materials Sciences Division and a new Foundry user, the Foundry’s capabilities to deposit thin films (metals & oxides) and to characterize them (scanning probe and electron microscopy/X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) will form a crucial part of my research into chemical reactions on the solid-liquid and solid-gas interface. After having been a user at five synchtrons (ALS, NSLS-II, ESRF, SSRL, and Elettra) and at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, BNL, I would like to become more involved than solely as a user.
  • www.matthijsvanspronsen.nl

Michael Whittaker, Postdoc, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • 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.

Alex Zhukhovitsky, Postdoc, University of California, Berkeley

  • Representing Facilities: Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
  • Personal Statement: Alex has used the EXAFS at the Foundry, also with experience with SAXS/WAXS experiments. He is currently a postdoc, but applying for faculty positions now (fall 2018, tentative start date somewhere of summer 2019).

 

Student Candidates

A’Lester Allen, Graduate Student, University of California, Santa Cruz

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I am motivated to serve on the UEC because the researchers and staff at NCEM have contributed to my understanding in ways that have tremendously benefited my research. I would like the opportunity to give back and serve this community.
  • https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VuM-C-IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Brooke Kuei, Graduate Student, Pennsylvania State University

  • Representing Facilities: NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I have been a user at the National Center for Electron Microscopy for the past two years and work primarily on developing imaging techniques for soft materials. I am interested in serving on the UEC because I owe much of my growth as a scientist to my amazing experiences through the Foundry and believe that my unique perspective as a user of both the Foundry and the ALS can offer a positive influence to a broad user community. I am also interested in taking on leadership opportunities through the UEC and believe that my strengths in science outreach and communication would help me succeed in a leadership role.
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-kuei-45695bb8/

Milan Palei, PhD Fellow, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

  • Representing Facilities: Nanofabrication
  • Personal Statement: My work in foundry was mainly focused on nano fabrication of multilayered TiN meta materials and in-situ ellipsometric characterization for its application in Superlensing. Being a part of UEC I would have a chance to contribute towards future activities at the Foundry.
  • https://www.iit.it/people/milan-palei

Elyse Schriber, Student Assistant, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Representing Facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures
  • Personal Statement: I am currently working on the synthesis and characterization of new 2D hybrid materials using advanced X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques. I am also a senior at California State University, East Bay. My experience as a user at both the Molecular Foundry and the Advanced Light Source, as well as my educational background places me in a unique position to provide an interface between smaller research communities who would benefit from becoming users and the Molecular Foundry.

Dominik Stemer, Graduate Student, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Representing Facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, NCEM
  • Personal Statement: I’m a 3rd year PhD student at UCLA who currently has three ongoing projects with LBNL (2 at the Foundry and 1 at the ALS); the proposals for all of which I authored. I have a strong interest in continuing to stay involved with the Foundry and in pursuing a role in a user facility environment following my graduation because I believe that user facilities such as the Molecular Foundry are a significant asset to scientific progress due to the successful way they blend independent and inter-institutional research.
  • dominikstemer.com