Lab Researchers Among Five Faculty Named Bakar Fellows
Among the latest to join the ranks of the Bakar Fellows Program, which supports UC Berkeley faculty working to apply scientific discoveries to real-world issues, are Ke Xu of the Life Sciences Division, who works on super-resolution microscopy, and Holger Müller (pictured), a guest scientist in the Chemical Sciences Division. More >>
Head-Gordon, Neumark, Nogales Elected to National Academy of Sciences
The academy is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science organization. This year’s fellows include Martin Head-Gordon (left) and Daniel Neumark (center) of the Chemical Sciences Division, and Eva Nogales of the Life Sciences Division. Full Article >>
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Elects New Members
Four Berkeley Lab-affiliated researchers have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the academy has announced. The newly elected, lab-affiliated members, include Carlos Bustamante, John Clarke, John Hartwig, and Enrique Iglesia. More >>
Lab Researchers Selected as APS Fellows
This year’s recently announced American Physical Society (APS) Fellows include nine scientists from Berkeley Lab. APS Fellows are elected by their peers for “exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise; e.g., outstanding physics research, important applications of physics, leadership in or service to physics, or significant contributions to physics education.”
Full article >>
Chemical Sciences Division’s Don Tilley Named ACS Fellow
Tilley, a senior faculty chemist, was named by the American Chemical Society to the 2014 class of ACS Fellows. Tilley, an expert on inorganic and organometallic systems, was recognized for “discoveries of new transformations and compounds involving main group elements and the transition metals.” Full article >>
Up in Flames: Evidence Confirms Combustion Theory
Berkeley Lab and University of Hawaii research outlines the story of soot, with implications for cleaner-burning fuels.
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Hawaii have uncovered the first step in the process that transforms gas-phase molecules into solid particles like soot and other carbon-based compounds.
The finding could help combustion chemists make more-efficient, less-polluting fuels and help materials scientists fine-tune their carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets for faster, smaller electronics. In addition, the results could have implications for the burgeoning field of astrochemistry, potentially establishing the chemical process for how gaseous outflows from stars turn into carbon-based matter in space. Full article >
F. Dean Toste Wins 2014 "Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award"
CSD Faculty Scientist F. Dean Toste has won the 2014 award for "Introduction of Concepts and Catalysts for Organic Synthesis, including those based on Homogeneous Gold Catalysis and Chiral Anion Catalysis."
Professor Toste has pioneered the development of novel catalysts with gold complexes, high-valent metal oxides, and chiral counteranions including: (a) homogeneous low-valent gold catalysts; (b) high-valent metal oxide catalysts; and (c) chiral counteranion-assisted asymmetric metal-free phase-transfer catalysis. More recently he has developed metal catalyst-fermentation hybrid processes for the synthesis of biofuels and chemicals from biomass. Full article >>
Four Lab Scientists Receive DOE Early Career Awards
Four Berkeley Lab scientists are among the 35 researchers selected by the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science to receive significant funding for research as part of DOE’s Early Career Research Program. Lab awardees include (clockwise) the Chemical Sciences Division’s Rebecca Abergel, the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division’s Daniele Filippetto, the Material Sciences Division’s Alexander Weber‐Bargioni, and the Life Sciences Division’s Trent Northen. The effort, now in its fifth year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. More>
Chemical Scientist Robert Bergman Wins Welch Award
Berkeley Lab chemical scientist and UC Berkeley Professor Robert Bergman is the 2014 recipient of the Welch Award in Chemical Research for “pioneering work in alkane activation and mechanisms of organometallic reactions.” The Welch Foundation is one of the nation’s oldest and largest sources of private funding for basic research in chemistry. The foundation also cited Bergman’s vital contributions to the understanding of organometallic chemistry and particularly carbon-hydrogen bond activation and its application to drug development and cleaner energy. More>
Chemical Scientist Rebecca Abergel Named Top 10 Innovator Under 35
Rebecca Abergel of the Chemical Sciences Division was named one of the top 10 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review, French edition. Abergel, who heads the Bioactinide Group, is leading development of a pill to decontaminate people in the event of radiation exposure, such as after a “dirty bomb” attack or an accident at a nuclear power plant. The nominations were open to both French citizens and foreigners residing in France. The winners of the regional competitions automatically become candidates for the global list of top 35 innovators under 35. Go here for more (article is in French). TaBL Article >>
Tracking Catalytic Reactions in Microreactors
Infrared Technique at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source Could Help Improve Flow Reactor Chemistry for Pharmaceuticals and Other Products.
A pathway to more effective and efficient synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs and other flow reactor chemical products has been opened by a study in which for the first time the catalytic reactivity inside a microreactor was mapped in high resolution from start-to-finish.
Working at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), the team used tightly focused beams of infrared and x-ray light to track the evolution of a catalytic reaction with a spatial resolution of 15 microns. This research was led by chemists Dean Toste (left, with Elad Gross) and Gabor Somorjai, both of whom hold joint appointments with Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley. Somorjai is also a member of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley.
Norman Edelstein, Two Other Berkeley Lab Scientists named AAAS 2013 Fellows
Three Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
This year 388 members have been awarded the honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
The three from Berkeley Lab are:
- Stephen P. Cramer, Physical Biosciences Division, for the development and creative applications of synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy to bioinorganic chemistry
- Norman Marvin Edelstein, Chemical Sciences Division, for distinguished contributions to the field of inorganic chemistry, with special emphasis on the synthesis, magnetic properties, and optical spectroscopy of complexes of the 4f- and 5f-elements
- Glen Lambertson, retired, Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, for fundamental contributions to accelerator science and technology including significant advances in beam electrodynamics that enable the operation of high luminosity electron and hadron colliders
All Hands Toward Safety
Creating the safest, most productive work environment isn’t going to happen if you don’t have buy-in from every employee involved.In the Chemical Sciences Division (CSD) we encourage everyone to help find controls to the safety hazards facing them. Who better knows their work environments?
By engaging the many post-docs, students, PIs, and support staff to work in partnership with resources like division safety coordinators and EHSS, we aim to empower individuals who make collaborative, proactive decisions on how to perform their work safely.
Since I became Interim Director last May, I’ve seen efforts that have made our Division not only a safer place to work, but also a more productive one. I credit these successes to team-based solutions.
Last year Thorsten Weber, a staff scientist in the Division, needed help with unconventional ergonomic-related risks in his Lab. Years ago Thorsten had strained his back while in the lab and wanted to prevent that from happening to colleagues. I asked Thorsten to reach out to EHSS and he teamed with ergonomist Melanie Alexandre. The two helped create a set of solutions that addressed all of his major concerns regarding lifting, reaching, and prolonged standing. Yes, this cost money and Thorsten’s time away from research. However, we now know these Lab workers have the needed tools to complete their jobs efficiently and safely. It pays not to cut corners.
Sometimes the tools are in place but it’s the correct process that can be overlooked. Recently a grad student in one of our labs bruised her hand after her wrench slipped. I had familiarity with the types of vacuum chambers she was working on so I visited the lab and met with the students involved. I shared how I had learned to work with these awkwardly shaped chambers and made the situation casual, without a PI or anyone else present. Sharing safety knowledge this way is a win-win situation because we learn how to safely perform specific functions that relate to us while becoming more productive in the process.
That visit illustrated several fundamental tenets of our safety culture: building trust, looking out for each other, and providing on-the-job training. These are especially important for us since we host many post-docs and grad students.
In Water as In Love, Likes Can Attract
Rich Saykally of the Chemical Sciences Division and David Pendergrast of the Molecular Foundry, working at the Advanced Light Source, have shown that in water as in love, likes can attract.
Daniel Haxton, Four Other Berkeley Lab Researchers Receive DOE Early Career Awards
In the fourth year of the Early Career Research Program managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, five researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) were on the list of 61 recipients announced this week.
The 61 scientists from across the nation will receive up to $15.3 million in funding for research. The effort is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.
Among this year’s Berkeley Lab winners:
Daniel Haxton, who hails from the Chemical Sciences Division, is a member of the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Theory Group. Haxton received his award for “The Multiconfiguration Time‐dependent Hartree Fock (MCTDHF) Method for Interactions of Molecules with Strong Ultrafast High‐Energy Laser Pulses.”
