Voting opened on December 7th for 3 new members of the Molecular Foundry UEC (1 PI, 1 post-doc, and 1 student). Please view the candidate details below by clicking on each candidate’s name and vote using the embedded ballot form at the bottom of the page. Voting will close on December 18th and results will be announced in late December.
Principal Investigator CandidatesGandhi Rádis Baptista, Institute for Marine Sciences, Federal University of Ceara, CE-Brazil
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures
- Personal statement: In the next academic semesters in 2021, I will be involved with the synthesis of peptoids and fluorescent analogues, the investigation of their biological activities using cell culture and organoids, the visualization of their cellular and subcellular compartmentation. I wish to serve on the MF UEC to contribute with the orientation of basic and applied research projects in the field of peptide and peptoid functionalities, as well as of biopharmaceutical developement using high resolution platfoms of cell imaging.
Roger Basu, Coreshell Technologies, Inc
- Representing facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
- Personal statement: I’ve been a Foundry user for the past six years, with two different companies, with projects spanning four of the six Foundry facilities. My research currently focuses on advanced materials for lithium ion batteries, and I am PI on 2 proposals. Would love to give back to the Foundry any way I can.
- Website: www.coreshelltech.com
Hector Calderon, Instituto Politecnico Nacional (Mexico)
- Representing facilities: National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: I am a long time user of NCEM and this is a good opportunity to serve and pay back . I have mainly used aberration corrected electron microscopes under different proposals and both my productivity and expertise have considerably increased as a consequence.
Jason Cooper, CSD/LBNL
- Representing facilities: Nanofabrication, National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: I have been a user of MFD working at NCEM and Nanofab and have collaborated with Foundry scientists for years as a graduate student, post-doc, and as a PI. I am also a user at ALS and NERSC and believe in building strong connections across the Lab. As a member of the executive committee, it would be a honor to represent other fellow users to give back and help further the mission of this world class facility.
- Website: www.jasonkcooper.com
Joseph Geddes, Photia Incorporated
- Representing facilities: Nanofabrication
- Personal statement: My company Photia is building a holographic lithography user tool in the nanofab. I am running to listen to the needs of all nanofab and industrial users at the Foundry and represent them on the user committee.
- Website: https://www.photiatech.com
Jeongmin Hong, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
- Representing facilities: Nanofabrication, Biological Nanostructures
- Personal statement: Since 2012, I have been a user as a postdoc and scientist at UC Berkeley and now a PI for several user proposals at the Molecular Foundry. Currently, I am a visiting professor at UC Berkeley and a tenured full professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). The scope of my activities includes engineering research in new materials/devices for future electronics and precision medicine and from some time of experience at the Foundry, I could serve to build the user community strong!
Ilka Kriegel, Italian Institute of Technology
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Inorganic Nanostructures
- Personal statement: Performed a 2 years postdoc period at the molecular foundry imaging and manipulation of nanostructures facility working on the coupling of 2D materials to nanocrystals. I support the structure and collaborative atmosphere of the molecular foundry and would be happy to serve on the UEC to give back some of what i was lucky enough to experience there. I further would like to keep up the connection with the molecular foundry for the future to inspire and get inspired.
Suhas Kumar, Hewlett Packard Labs
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: Within the UEC, I will represent the interests of the industry in performing fundamental and exploratory research at the Molecular Foundry. I will foster collaborative projects between the industry, academia and the national labs network, which I do in my own research and have found remarkable benefits of.
Luca Razzari, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications (INRS-EMT)
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication
- Personal statement: My name is Luca Razzari and I work at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Canada. My team is collaborating with the Foundry to develop novel nonlinear photonic devices based on dielectric metasurfaces. I am interested in serving in the UEC to represent the needs of the international researchers interacting with the Foundry and offer the perspective of an investigator with experience as both a local and a remote user.
- Website: https://www.razzarilab.org/
Francesco Scotognella, Politecnico di Milano
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication
- Personal statement: My activity at the Foundry focusses on upconverting lasers and photophysics of 2D materials. I am willing to help in the development of a platform that support the interaction between Foundry and research institutes all around the world.
- Website: https://www.fisi.polimi.it/en/people/scotognella
Geoffrey F. Strouse, Florida State University
- Representing facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures
- Personal statement: I have spent 25 years researching the ability to manipulate the properties of Quantum Dots and Nanocrystals for magnetic, optical, and biophysical applications. My group has ben active on the Inorganic Floor as researchers interested in material synthesis and material properties for the past 5 years. The Molecular Foundry fills an important niche in the research community by providing a National Resource that act as an intellectual hub and incubator of new ideas.
- Website: https://www.chem.fsu.edu/~strouse/
Post-doc Candidates
Boyce Chang, LBNL
- Representing facilities: Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis
- Personal statement: This year, I’m starting my three year journey with the Molecular Foundry as a postdoc at the Nanofabrication facility. My work here will be interdisciplinary, involving polymer synthesis at the Organic Facility and using them to create structures at the Nanofabrication Facility. I’m excited to meet users and learn about their projects. It will be a bonus if we have the opportunity to start new collaborations.
Cassio Pedroso, Molecular Foundry/LBNL and Department of Biochemistry/University of São Paulo
- Representing facilities: Biological Nanostructures
- Personal statement: As a postdoctoral researcher working full time at the Molecular Foundry since Oct/2018, I have been able to meet many staff and users from multiple floors and know the lab’s work procedures. My interest in serving on the UEC is to be an accessible and present voice in the committee for the MF users as well as a liaison between staff and users.
Yujun Xie, NCEM/UCB Nuclear Engineering
- Representing facilities: National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: Yujun (Terry) Xie is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley as well as the National Center for Electron Microscopy. He received a B.S in Materials Science and Engineering from the Drexel University and a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University. His postdoctoral research focuses on applying four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) and other advanced electron microscopy techniques to understand the microstructure evolution of structural metal and organic materials in extreme environments. He was awarded the MRS Graduate Student Gold Award and Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship during his Ph.D. He has been a user at the foundry since 2018.
Graduate Student Candidates
Xiao Qi, UC Davis
- Representing facilities: Inorganic Nanostructures, National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: I have been a user at the Molecular Foundry since 2016. My research is diverse in multiple projects including in operando characterization of novel anode materials for energy storage applications, in situ liquid cell TEM study of nanoscale galvanic replacement reaction and high throughput automatic synthesis of novel semiconductor nanomaterials. As a graduate student outside Berkeley campus, I found lots of exciting research possibilities and collaboration at Foundry and LBNL throughout the past 5 years. If selected to serve on the User Executive Committee (UEC), I would like to share my experience with other potential users, especially encourage young graduate students to find their research fields of interest and integrate with Foundry’s research direction to explore new possibilities and help outside users utilizing this world-class research facility in a highly effective way.
Madeline Van Winkle, UC Berkeley
- Representing facilities: National Center for Electron Microscopy
- Personal statement: Madeline Van Winkle has been using 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy to study twisted 2D materials at NCEM since July 2019. Since beginning her project as a bright-eyed first-year graduate student, she has benefited tremendously from the access to world-class instruments and invaluable mentorship at this facility. Working at NCEM has been one of the highlights of her graduate school experience so far and she is excited about the opportunity to cultivate a vibrant intellectual community for all users and staff at the Molecular Foundry.
