Wilson K.S. Chiu, University of Connecticut

Chair

Wilson K.S. Chiu is Professor in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Wilson’s research focuses on heat and mass transfer with chemical reactions, with applications to materials for sustainable energy applications (battery, electrolyzer, fuel cell, gas separation membrane, metal foam, molten salts, solar cell, waste form), carbon nano-materials, photonics, and semiconductors.

NSLS-II Programs: Imaging and Microscopy, Hard X-ray Methods, Spectroscopy

Email: wilson.chiu@uconn.edu

Petra Reinke, University of Virginia

Vice Chair

Petra Reinke is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Virginia. Her research interests are in surface reactions and processes at the intersection of materials science, physics, and chemistry. Examples include the magnetic doping of Si and Ge quantum dots with Mn, defects in 2D materials, and corrosion and oxidation of alloys. Her research group uses scanning probe methods and electron spectroscopies, both laboratory and synchrotron based. She has conducted experiments at several synchrotron facilities over the years: defects in diamond surfaces with NEXAFS at BESSY I, electronic and magnetic structure measurements at the ALS, and NSLS I. Her interest in corrosion lead to recent work at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and MAX IV with ambient pressure and time resolved experiments using AP-XPS and XPEEM. This work was only possible with the experimental and intellectual support by the BNL staff and other users.

National Laboratories have been an rich resource for her work and offer unique inspiration for PIs and student researchers. The opportunity to present at a recent iOS beamline review motivated her to engage in the community. Petra is passionate about developing strategies to foster innovation, and support the community of users, beamline scientists, and staff. She is specifically interested in developing strategies for sharing, and innovating in data analytics. How can the community build transparent and accessible software, and share data analysis strategies to advance science and accelerate innovation? What are the best ways to communicate methods, algorithms, and data interpretation capabilities to make full use of novel and “data rich” methods? The UEC can play an important role as a facilitator to set up and monitor the best ways to support users in this endeavor.

NSLS-II Programs: Spectroscopy, Electronic Structure Techniques

Email: pr6e@virginia.edu

Matthew Whitaker, Stony Brook University

Past Chair

Matt Whitaker is a Research Associate Professor at Stony Brook University in the Mineral Physics Institute and Department of Geosciences, and is the P.I. of the Synchrotron Earth and Environmental Sciences (NSF-SEES) Multi-Anvil High Pressure Program, overseeing the MAXPD Endstation at the XPD Beamline of NSLS-II and the 6-BM-B Multi-Anvil beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. He has been an active synchrotron user for twenty years at eighteen different beamlines at five different synchrotron facilities on three continents. He also finds it extremely strange to talk about himself in the third person. Presently, he is an active user at the SRX, TES, XFM, and XPD beamlines at NSLS-II and has served on the NSLS-II UEC starting in 2019. During this time, he co-created and continues to host the wildly popular NSLS-II UEC Show and has worked to increase UEC involvement both at NSLS-II and across the DOE Light Sources. Matt's interests lie in adapting synchrotron techniques to study everything from high pressure minerals and materials science to meteorites and planetary analogs. He specializes in Mineral Physics, Geochemistry, Planetary Science, and Solid-State Chemistry, and is very interested in pursuing multi-modal studies of materials using multiple techniques available at multiple beamlines, particularly at NSLS-II.

NSLS-II Programs: Hard X-Ray Methods, BEPSD, Imaging and Microscopy, Spectroscopy

Email: matthew.whitaker@stonybrook.edu

Alisha Clark, UC Boulder

Secretary

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. My research focuses primarily on measuring the equation of state and transport properties of experimentally complex materials (amorphous and multiphase materials) relevant to planetary formation, evolution, and destruction at extreme conditions using both static and dynamic compression techniques. To this end, my research program has been involved in technique development for high pressure X-ray microtomography, GHz-frequency ultrasonic interferometry, falling sphere viscometry, shock-ramp, ramp compression, and shock viscosity measurements. Many of these developments have occurred in partnership with national laboratories (Brookhaven, APS, and Sandia). At NSLS-II, my research group are users of the XPD and FIS beamlines.

NSLS-II Programs: Hard X-ray Methods and Electronic Structure Techniques

Email: alisha.clark@colorado.edu

Eta Isiorho, City University of New Yor

Outreach Officer

Eta Isiorho is the Macromolecular Crystallization Facility (MCF) core facility director in the Structural Biology Initiative (SBI) at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center’s (GC) Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC). She uses the macromolecular crystallography beamlines, AMX, FMX and NYX at NSLS-II. She is an ardent supporter that science is for everyone and enjoys giving tours of her facilities to demystify the science for the public.

NSLS-II Programs: BEPSD

Email: eisiorho@gc.cuny.edu

Lucas Flagg, NIST

Lucas Flagg is a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Lucas frequently uses beamlines in the Complex Scattering group to reveal structure-function-performance relationships in conjugated polymers.

NSLS-II Programs: Complex Scattering, Electronic Structure Techniques

Email: lucas.flagg@nist.gov

Peijjun Guo, Yale University

After spending three years at Argonne National Lab as an Enrico Fermi Named Postdoc Fellow, Peijun Guo joined the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University, with his lab hosted under the Energy Sciences Institute on Yale’s west campus. His group develops and employs optical spectroscopy and microscopy to understand the structure-property relationships in materials for energy conversion and storage.

NSLS-II Programs: Imaging and Microscopy

Email: peijun.guo@yale.edu

Gary Harlow, University of Oregon

Dr. Gary Harlow specializes in combining synchrotron grazing incidence techniques with electrochemical measurements. He earned his Ph.D. under Prof. Christopher Lucas at the University of Liverpool (UK), who is also a director of the UK XMaS beamline at the ESRF. After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Harlow worked as a postdoc at the Division of Synchrotron Radiation Research, Lund University, Sweden, and later at the University of Copenhagen. He then held a joint researcher position between Malmö University and the NanoMax beamline at the MAX IV synchrotron in Sweden. Dr Harlow has conducted beamtimes at many European and US facilities such as: PETRA-III, Diamond, SLS, ESRF, MAX IV, ALS, APS, and NSLS-II.

Dr. Harlow is currently a Research Assistant Professor and Associate Director at the Oregon Center for Electrochemistry, where he teaches electrochemistry and leads an independent research group. His research focuses on both fundamental and applied electrochemistry, with topics including double layer structure, electrocatalysis, and corrosion. As a member of the User Executive Committee at NSLS-II, Dr. Harlow will be committed to advocating for user needs, including making it easier to do chemistry related research at NSLS-II and reducing the amount of red tape users face.

NSLS-II Programs: Complex Scattering

Email: gharlow@uoregon.edu

Sangjae Lee, Yale University

I am an associate research scientist at Yale University, working with Prof. Charles Ahn in the Department of Applied Physics. My expertise lies in thin film growth and x-ray scattering and spectroscopic characterizations. I have been an active synchrotron user for ten years at many different facilities around the world, performing SXRD, RIXS, XAS, XPS, coherent scattering, and ARPES measurements. Currently, we have installed Yale's oxide molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) thin film growth system on the NSLS-II floor, at the ESM beamline. Fully leveraging our MBE system, I have been performing experiments at multiple beamlines at NSLS-II to conduct multi-modal studies on oxide thin films to gain insights into their novel phenomena. As an active user of the NSLS-II, I am interested in fostering exciting research of quantum materials using advanced synchrotron techniques.

NSLS-II Programs: Electronic Structure Techniques

Email: sangjae.lee@yale.edu

Yijin Liu, University of Texas

Yijin Liu, an Associate Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT Austin, has over 15 years of experience in X-ray characterization methods for diverse scientific research. His work focuses on battery manufacturing, safety, degradation, and failure analysis. As an active user, he utilizes advanced NSLS-II facilities, including HXN and FXI, to drive innovation in these areas.

NSLS-II Programs: Imaging and Microscopy

Email: liuyijin@utexas.edu

Robert Palomino, BASF

Robert Palomino is a Senior Chemist II at BASF Corporation located in Iselin, NJ since 2018. He conducts X-ray Spectroscopy and Microscopy studies in the Materials Characterization group of the Catalysts department. His research focuses on X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and X-ray Micro-computed Tomography (XMT) along with AI-assisted segmentation of the resultant 3D images. This is employed for various fields, including environmental catalysts, battery materials, refining catalysts, pigments, and coatings. His work at BASF involves collaborations with universities and synchrotron facilities globally. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from St. John’s University and his Ph.D. from State University of New York Stony Brook. Prior to joining BASF, Robert was a Postdoc at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), joint between the Chemistry Division and the NSLS-II. He has collaborations with several synchrotron facilities as part of his role at BASF, including NSLS-II. He utilizes the XPD, BMM and FXI beamlines at NSLS-II. He is interested in promoting the use of NSLS-II by industry partners and having increased access to beamlines as well as improved data evaluation/analysis methods by users of NSLS-II beamline.

NSLS-II Programs: Electronic Structure Techniques, Hard X-Ray Methods, Spectroscopy, Imaging and Microscopy

Email: robert.palomino@basf.com

Troy Rasbury, Stony Brook University

Troy Rasbury is a professor at Stony Brook University in the Department of Geosciences. She is a geochemist and specializes in U-Pb dating of minerals such as calcite, dolomite and fluorite. She has been a long-time user of synchrotrons, particularly using hard- and tender X-ray microprobes to understand U speciation and redox. This work is relevant to U-Pb dating but also provides important information on long-term sequestration of U (well beyond lab experiments and super fund sites) as well as insights into ore forming processes. She nominated herself for the UEC because she wanted to make a difference for general users and particularly geoscientists for making changes that ensure everyone gets a fair shot at beamtime.

NSLS-II Programs: BEPSD, Spectroscopy

Email: troy.rasbury@stonybrook.edu

Kate Szerlag, Texas A&M University

Kathryn (Kate) Szerlag is assistant professor of soil and water chemistry at Texas A&M University. She completed her PhD in Soil and Plant Sciences with a focus on soil chemistry at the University of Delaware in 2021. For her research, she primarily aims to achieve a better understanding of fundamental soil phosphorus and sulfur chemistry. To accomplish this, she utilizes bulk wet chemical experiments paired with advanced synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to investigate the different species of phosphorus and sulfur in the soil and how these different species affect solubility and mobility in soils and water. Kate has extensive experience with tender and hard energy µXRF mapping, tender energy µXANES, multi-modal techniques, and bulk XANES. She also has experience with microprobe and bulk XANES for arsenic speciation. Kate has been on countless beam trips to NSLS-II including beamlines 4-BM (X-ray Fluorescence Microprobe), 8-BM (Tender Energy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy), and 7-ID-2 (Spectroscopy Soft and Tender 2). Additionally, she also has experience at beamline 14-3 at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource.

NSLS-II Programs: BEPSD and Spectroscopy

Email: kate.szerlag@ag.tamu.edu

Shan Yan, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Shan Yan performs research at multiple NSLS-II beamlines covering X-ray diffraction, soft and hard X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, imaging and tomography techniques along with Operando Synchrotron techniques in multiple systems.

Shan is a chemical and material scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and an affiliated member of the Institute of Energy: Sustainability, Environment and Equity at Stony Brook University.

NSLS-II Programs: Hard X-ray Methods, Electronic Structure Techniques, Imaging and Microscopy

Email: syan@bnl.gov

Gugulethu Nkala, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Post-Doc Representative

Gugu is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the SSRL in the Materials Science Division under the mentorship of Dr. Johanna Nelson Weker, working on transition metal oxide pseudocapacitor and Na Ion Battery alloying anode materials. PXRD, PDF and XAS are the primary characterization techniques in investigating structure-property correlations. Gugu completed her PhD in 2024 from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa under the supervision of Prof. David Billing. During her studies, she undertook a research visit in University of Washington in the Department of Physics with Prof. John Rehr and Dr. Fernando Vila in using FEFF to model XAS spectra in elucidating the electronic structure of Al, Dy co-doped NASICON solid-state electrolytes. She was also a Postgraduate Representative in the School of Chemistry, a leadership role in which she was the student’s liaison between post-graduate students and the School Committee with the objective of improving the postgraduate experience.

NSLS-II Programs: Hard X-ray Methods, Spectroscopy

Email: gugun@slac.stanford.edu

Elizabeth Cote, University of Massachusetts

Student Representative

Elzabeth Cote is the Graduate Student Representative for the UEC, representing Hard X-Rays research. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Walsh lab at UMass Amherst, where she is investigating high pressure synthesis methods for the discovery of novel transition metal carbides. Liz has been a user at MAXPD since March of 2023.

NSLS-II Programs: Hard X-Ray Methods

Email: eecote@umass.edu

Qun Liu, Brookhaven National Laboratory

LBMS Representative

Email: qunliu@bnl.gov

Mercy Baez, Brookhaven National Laboratory

NSLS-II User Administrator

Mercy is pretty much the greatest of all time at whatever she chooses to be the greatest of or at. This is not up for debate.

NSLS-II Programs: All of them

Email: baez@bnl.gov