SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory


Showing 31-39 of 39 Results

  • Paul McIntyre

    Paul McIntyre

    Rick and Melinda Reed Professor, Professor of Photon Science and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy

    BioMcIntyre's group performs research on nanostructured inorganic materials for applications in electronics, energy technologies and sensors. He is best known for his work on metal oxide/semiconductor interfaces, ultrathin dielectrics, defects in complex metal oxide thin films, and nanostructured Si-Ge single crystals. His research team synthesizes materials, characterizes their structures and compositions with a variety of advanced microscopies and spectroscopies, studies the passivation of their interfaces, and measures functional properties of devices.

  • Emilio Alessandro Nanni

    Emilio Alessandro Nanni

    Assistant Professor of Photon Science and of Particle Physics and Astrophysics

    BioEmilio received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2007. After graduating he worked for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center developing non-destructive evaluation techniques for applications related to the US space program. He completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013 where he worked on high-frequency high-power THz sources and the development of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometers using Dynamic Nuclear Polarization. His thesis was on the first photonic-band-gap gyrotron travelling wave amplifier which demonstrated record power and gain levels in the THz frequency band.

    He completed his postdoc at MIT with a joint appointment in the Nuclear Reactor Lab and the Research Laboratory for Electronics at MIT where he demonstrated the first acceleration of electrons with optically generated THz pulses. He joined the Technology Innovation Directorate at SLAC in August of 2015 where he continues his work on high power, high-frequency vacuum electron devices; optical THz amplifiers; electron-beam dynamics; and advanced accelerator concepts.

  • Anders R. Nilsson

    Anders R. Nilsson

    Professor of Photon Science, Emeritus
    Temporary Employee - TMS, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

    BioAnders Nilsson interests covers the application of synchrotron radiation to studies of surfaces and in liquids with a focus on studies catalytic processes in fuel cells, photoelectrochemical decomposition of water, CO2 reduction, chemical bonding on surfaces, structure of liquid water and aqueous solutions, interfacial processes of relevance to molecular environmental science and ultrafast processes on surfaces and in water.

  • Piero Pianetta

    Piero Pianetta

    Professor (Research) of Photon Science and of Electrical Engineering

    BioPianetta's research is directed towards understanding how the atomic and electronic structure of semiconductor interfaces impacts device technology pertaining to advanced semiconductors and photocathodes. His research includes the development of new analytical tools for these studies based on the use of synchrotron radiation. These include the development of ultrasensitive methods to analyze trace impurities on the surface of silicon wafers at levels as low as 1e-6 monolayer (~1e8 atoms/cm2) and the use of various photoelectron spectroscopies (X-ray photoemission, NEXAFS, X-ray standing waves and photoelectron diffraction) to determine the bonding and atomic structure at the interface between silicon and different passivating layers. Recent projects include the development of high resolution (~30nm) x-ray spectromicroscopy with applications to energy materials such as Li batteries.

  • John Louis Sarrao

    John Louis Sarrao

    Director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Professor of Photon Science and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy

    BioJohn Sarrao became SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s sixth director in October 2023. The lab’s ~2,000 staff advance the frontiers of science by exploring how the universe works at the biggest, smallest, and fastest scales and invent powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. SLAC’s research helps solve real-world problems and advances the interests of the nation. SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. It is home to three Office of Science national user facilities: the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s most powerful X-ray laser; the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL); and the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests, (FACET-II). SLAC hosts nearly 1,000 users each year and manages an annual budget of ~$700M. In addition to his role as lab director, John is a professor of photon science at Stanford University, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Precourt Institute, and dean of SLAC faculty.

    John came to SLAC from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, where he served as the deputy director for science, technology, and engineering. In that role, he led multiple directorates, including chemistry, earth and life sciences, global security, physical sciences, and simulation and computation. He also stewarded technology transitions and served as LANL’s chief research officer in support of its national security mission. Before becoming deputy director, he served as associate director for theory, simulation, and computation and division leader for materials physics and applications at LANL.

    John’s scientific research focus is superconductivity in materials. He studies the synthesis and characterization of correlated electron systems, especially actinide materials. He won the 2013 Department of Energy’s E.O. Lawrence Award and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and LANL. John received his PhD and master’s degree in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford University.

  • Georgios Skiniotis

    Georgios Skiniotis

    Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, of Structural Biology and of Photon Science

    BioThe Skiniotis laboratory seeks to resolve structural and mechanistic questions underlying biological processes that are central to cellular physiology. Our investigations employ primarily cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and 3D reconstruction techniques complemented by biochemistry, biophysics and simulation methods to obtain a dynamic view into the macromolecular complexes carrying out these processes. The main theme in the lab is the structural biology of cell surface receptors that mediate intracellular signaling and communication. Our current main focus is the exploration of the mechanisms responsible for transmembrane signal instigation in cytokine receptors and G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) complexes.

  • Edward I. Solomon

    Edward I. Solomon

    Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Photon Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Solomon's work spans physical-inorganic, bioinorganic, and theoretical-inorganic chemistry, focusing on spectroscopic elucidation of the electronic structure of transition metal complexes and its contribution to reactivity. He has advanced our understanding of metal sites involved in electron transfer, copper sites involved in O2 binding, activation and reduction to water, structure/function correlations over non-heme iron enzymes, and correlation of biological to heterogeneous catalysis.

  • Soichi Wakatsuki

    Soichi Wakatsuki

    Professor of Photon Science and of Structural Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsUbiquitin signaling: structure, function, and therapeutics
    Ubiquitin is a small protein modifier that is ubiquitously produced in the cells and takes part in the regulation of a wide range of cellular activities such as gene transcription and protein turnover. The key to the diversity of the ubiquitin roles in cells is that it is capable of interacting with other cellular proteins either as a single molecule or as different types of chains. Ubiquitin chains are produced through polymerization of ubiquitin molecules via any of their seven internal lysine residues or the N-terminal methionine residue. Covalent interaction of ubiquitin with other proteins is known as ubiquitination which is carried out through an enzymatic cascade composed of the ubiquitin-activating (E1), ubiquitin-conjugating (E2), and ubiquitin ligase (E3) enzymes. The ubiquitin signals are decoded by the ubiquitin-binding domains (UBDs). These domains often specifically recognize and non-covalently bind to the different ubiquitin species, resulting in distinct signaling outcomes.
    We apply a combination of the structural (including protein crystallography, small angle x-ray scattering, cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) etc.), biocomputational and biochemical techniques to study the ubiquitylation and deubiquitination processes, and recognition of the ubiquitin chains by the proteins harboring ubiquitin-binding domains. Current research interests including SARS-COV2 proteases and their interactions with polyubiquitin chains and ubiquitin pathways in host cell responses, with an ultimate goal of providing strategies for effective therapeutics with reduced levels of side effects.

    Protein self-assembly processes and applications.
    The Surface layers (S-layers) are crystalline protein coats surrounding microbial cells. S-layer proteins (SLPs) regulate their extracellular, self-assembly by crystallizing when exposed to an environmental trigger. We have demonstrated that the Caulobacter crescentus SLP readily crystallizes into sheets both in vivo and in vitro via a calcium-triggered multistep assembly pathway. Observing crystallization using a time course of Cryo-EM imaging has revealed a crystalline intermediate wherein N-terminal nucleation domains exhibit motional dynamics with respect to rigid lattice-forming crystallization domains. Rate enhancement of protein crystallization by a discrete nucleation domain may enable engineering of kinetically controllable self-assembling 2D macromolecular nanomaterials. In particular, this is inspiring designing robust novel platform for nano-scale protein scaffolds for structure-based drug design and nano-bioreactor design for the carbon-cycling enzyme pathway enzymes. Current research focuses on development of nano-scaffolds for high throughput in vitro assays and structure determination of small and flexible proteins and their interaction partners using Cryo-EM, and applying them to cancer and anti-viral therapeutics.

    Multiscale imaging and technology developments.
    Multimodal, multiscale imaging modalities will be developed and integrated to understand how molecular level events of key enzymes and protein network are connected to cellular and multi-cellular functions through intra-cellular organization and interactions of the key machineries in the cell. Larger scale organization of these proteins will be studied by solution X-ray scattering and Cryo-EM. Their spatio-temporal arrangements in the cell organelles, membranes, and cytosol will be further studied by X-ray fluorescence imaging and correlated with cryoEM and super-resolution optical microscopy. We apply these multiscale integrative imaging approaches to biomedical, and environmental and bioenergy research questions with Stanford, DOE national labs, and other domestic and international collaborators.