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Department of Physics and Astronomy Collins Research Group

2024 ALS User’s Meeting – Devin and Thomas invited as Early Career Panelist Members

Current graduate student Devin Grabner and former student Dr. Thomas Ferron (2019) were invited to speak on the Early Career Panel at the 2024 Advanced Light Source (ALS) Users Meeting. Devin Grabner was recently hired part-time by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division while finishing his last year of graduate school. Dr. Ferron is finishing his second Post-Doc position at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and will be transitioning to a staff scientist position either there or at the ALS.

The panelists were scientists from Industry, Academia, DoE Laboratory (Ferron), and DoD Laboratory (Grabner). There was a lot of positive engagement with well-received responses from the panel members.

Short bios on each panelist can be found here: https://als.lbl.gov/2024-user-meeting-speakers/#earlycareer

Devin Grabner Interviewed by Turning Science

Devin Grabner, a member of our group, has dedicated the past few academic years to developing an “Academia to Industry” colloquium series for the physics department, which has since expanded to become a university-wide speaking event. As a result of his efforts to bring these resources to our department and university, Dr. David Giltner, the Founder/CEO of Turning Science, requested an interview with Devin. The purpose of the interview is to showcase Devin’s work as an example to inspire other students to take similar initiatives in preparing for careers outside of academia. The interview will be featured on various platforms, including LinkedIn, blog posts, speaking engagements, and potentially in Dr. Giltner’s series of books, which comprise interviews with scientists from around the world.

A blog post by Dr. Gilnter featuring an excerpt from the interview can be viewed here.

Devin publishes in-situ polysoap micelle nanostructure

Graduate student Devin Grabner’s work on characterizing in-situ nanostructure and loading of novel polysoap micelles has been published in Langmuir. The work reveals the impressive capture and loading of aromatic cargo for therapeutics and water purification.  In-situ characterization shows this is due to an open corona structure likely controlled through macroion charging.  The work titled “Molecular weight-independent “polysoap” nanostructure characterized via in-situ resonant soft X-ray scattering” was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Phillip Picket at the University of Southern Mississippi and NIST as well as former Collins Lab postdoc Dr. Terry McAfee now at Berkeley National Laboratory.  Congratulations to all authors!

Read the article Molecular Weight-Independent “Polysoap” Nanostructure Characterized via In Situ Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering | Langmuir (acs.org)

Devin Grabner – 2023 ALS User Meeting Invited Speaker & Planning Committee Member

Devin Grabner played a dual role at this year’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) User Meeting & Visioning Workshops. As a member of the Users’ Executive Committee, he helped organize the week’s plenary talks, events, and workshops, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first light and discussed the future of the ALS. In addition, Devin was invited to present his cutting-edge research on the development of a Liquid In-Situ Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering technique during the “X-Ray Scattering for Complex Materials and Interfaces at the ALS: Data Acquisition and Analysis” tutorial on the first day of the User Meeting. The meeting tutorials and visioning workshops were valuable opportunities to exchange ideas and insights on the latest developments in the field.

One of the highlights of the event was a lunch meeting with Dr. Dava Keavney, the Program Manager for X-ray Light Sources at the U.S. Department of Energy – Scientific User Facilities. Devin was among the group of researchers invited to discuss current U.S. Department of Energy policies and positions related to X-ray Light Sources such as the ALS. The photo below pictures the group, including Devin, and Dr. Dava Keavney (far right).

Devin Grabner Awarded Advanced Light Source Doctoral Fellowship

As a 5th-year Physics Ph.D. Candidate in our group, Devin Grabner has been awarded a prestigious doctoral fellowship at Berkeley National Laboratory – Advanced Light Source (LBNL – ALS).

An ALS Doctoral Fellowship allows student researchers to work at the frontier of synchrotron radiation research and to help advance state-of-the-art techniques and applications. Students who have passed their Ph.D. qualifying or comprehensive exams and advanced to candidacy can apply to spend a year in residence at LBNL, working closely with an ALS staff member. Fellows acquire hands-on scientific training and develop professional maturity to complement their doctoral research. Applicants must be full-time students currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in the science or engineering disciplines and pursuing research that will benefit from ALS capabilities.