ALS Collaborative Postdoctoral Fellowships

Applications are closed for the fall round of fellowships. The next round of applications will open in October 2025. 

Program Overview

ALS Collaborative Postdoctoral Fellowships provide opportunities to conduct collaborative research and instrument development in areas supporting the scientific mission of the Department of Energy (DOE), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and the ALS. Fellows spend a year in residence at the ALS pursuing research projects as part of teams that include members of ALS staff and the user community, and are exposed to current scientific challenges that can be tackled using advanced synchrotron radiation tools. They share and exchange innovative scientific ideas and techniques to enhance their skills and professional training. Fellows will have access to a valuable combination of outstanding professional scientific and engineering staff, research instrumentation, and other facilities available at the ALS.

Applicants must identify a source of collaborative funding, usually provided by a collaborating postdoctoral advisor outside the ALS or an external postdoctoral fellowship. ALS Postdoctoral Fellowships provide an annual stipend of $35,500, which does not include benefits. Fellows from non-US home institutions are also provided a one-time $3,000 stipend payment (included in the first monthly payment) to support additional expenses incurred to temporarily relocate to and reside in the US from abroad. Please note that the fellowship stipend does not constitute a salary, as the fellowship is not an employee position. It is awarded to support independent research or studies and can be used to help cover the following non-qualified fellowship expenses: room and board, travel, research, clerical help, or equipment.

Prospective applicants should contact one or more ALS staff members to discuss areas of common research interest and to agree on a potential research project and scope (staff are listed in beamline directory entries and on the ALS staff page). ALS Postdoctoral Fellowship applications are accepted biannually in March (for a one-year program beginning September 1) and October (for a one-year program beginning May 1).

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be legally eligible to work in the United States, regardless of citizenship;
• Have a source of collaborative funding and benefits, usually provided by a collaborating postdoctoral advisor outside the ALS or an external postdoctoral fellowship, for the duration of the fellowship;
• Pursue research that will benefit from ALS capabilities;
• Have received a doctoral research degree from an accredited academic institution in an appropriate scientific or engineering discipline;
• Have fewer than five years of postdoctoral experience on the fellowship end date; and
• Provide proof of PhD completion and collaborative postdoctoral support (e.g., a signed appointment offer from the home institution) at least one month before the fellowship begins.

Note that LBNL-employed students and postdocs are not eligible to participate in the ALS Fellowship Program.

Awards are for one year with the possibility of renewal.

All contingencies of an appointment offer from the home institution must be met before the fellowship term begins. If an award is offered to a doctoral degree candidate, the candidate must present acceptable evidence that all formal academic doctoral degree requirements have been met before starting the fellowship.

Successful applicants will benefit from a series of professional development activities, including an orientation program, seminars throughout the year, and an opportunity to present results at the end of the fellowship.

Expectations

Fellowships involve a full-time commitment to the collaborative postdoc research program between ALS and external advisors and possibly other ALS users. Fellowship research must be conducted in accordance with a plan that meets the overall research needs of the ALS.

Fellows are required to:

• Commit to the fellowship cohort cycle dates;
• Live in or near Berkeley, and be on-site at Berkeley Lab at least 70% of the time during the fellowship year;
• Sign and abide by the appointment letter, the terms of appointment, and other required ALS/LBNL policies;
• Submit a final report of research accomplishments to the ALS; and
• Acknowledge the support of ALS/DOE/BES in publications and presentations related to research conducted during the fellowship, and submit these publications to the ALS publication database. The specific acknowledgement language about ALS use and fellowship support you must use is listed on this page.

Application Process Timeline for the Spring 2026 Fellowship Cycle

How to Apply

The application period for the next round of fellowships, which starts May 1, 2026, will be in October 2025.

The postdoctoral fellowship application form will ask for:

• Current C.V. and publication list
• Statement of research to be performed (up to 2 pages). View guidance on research proposal.
• Statement explaining how you intend to leverage being in residence at the ALS and Berkeley Lab to benefit your research and career development (up to 1 page). View guidance on residency statement.
• Proof of PhD (required at least one month prior to the fellowship start date)

In addition, applicants should ask letter writers to separately submit through the same application portal:

• Letter of recommendation from postdoc supervisor endorsing the proposed collaborative research project
• Letter of institutional support from the home institution or funding agency. Example letter of institutional support.
• Letter of support from the ALS host that describes how the project would benefit from ALS capabilities and advance ALS programs and strategic directions

Selection Procedure

Fellowship applications will be reviewed by a panel of ALS scientists and leadership. Applications will be evaluated based on the qualifications of the applicant, the merits of the proposed collaborative research, and the alignment of the project with ALS programs and strategic priorities.

For more information: Please contact Ashley White, ALS Division Deputy for Strategy.

Current Fellows

Spring 2025 Cohort

• Edwin Rivas Meraz, University of Minnesota (ALS host: David Shapiro and Matthew Marcus)
• Honghe Ding, University of California, Santa Cruz (ALS host: Jinghua Guo)
• Julian Vigil, University of California, Berkeley College of Chemistry (ALS host: Christoph Klewe and Gregory Su)
• Zachary Fink, University of Massachusetts Amherst (ALS host: Cheng Wang)– renewal
• Yueli Zhang, University of California, Davis (ALS host: Sujoy Roy)– renewal
• Dongwoo Kim, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) (ALS host: Slavomir Nemsak) – renewal

Fall 2024 Cohort

• Yunfei Wang, University of Southern Mississippi (ALS hosts: Chenhui Zhu and Alex Hexemer)
• José Carlos Díaz, University of Texas at Austin (ALS host: Greg Su)
• Dayne Sasaki, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ALS host: Sujoy Roy)
• Jason Parker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ALS host: Dula Parkinson) – renewal
• Florian Chabot, University of California Irvine (ALS host: Dula Parkinson) – renewal
• Shane Devlin, University of Nevada Las Vegas (ALS host: Moni Blum) – renewal

View past postdoctoral fellows>>

About the ALS

The ALS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national scientific user facility whose excellent scientific reputation, expert staff, and capabilities in the soft x-ray, hard x-ray, and infrared regimes attract approximately 1,600 academic and industrial users each year in disciplines spanning physical, chemical, materials, biological, energy, and Earth sciences. It is one of five Berkeley Lab user facilities that serve a combined 14,000 users annually. The co-location of these user facilities – including the Molecular Foundry Nanoscale Science Research Center and the NERSC scientific computing center, as well as Berkeley Lab’s outstanding programs in materials and chemical sciences among others – offers a prime environment for collaborative science. The ALS has been a global leader in soft x-ray science for more than two decades and is currently undergoing a major upgrade (ALS-U) that will endow the facility with state-of-the-art x-ray capabilities. It’s an exciting time to be at our facility!