Skip to main content

ALS

Home / Homepage News Grid

Jin Qian, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Postdoc

As a theoretical chemist, Jin Qian builds “virtual universes” that help predict what experimental chemists will see in their research. She focuses on water formation, a theme that carries through to one of her hobbies, which she is sharing with us in this month’s postdoc profile. Read more »

Masks On, Ready to Work: Meet the People Supporting COVID-19 Science

David Richardson’s job is literally to make sure the light stays on. But it’s not just any light—it’s a very special x-ray light that could play a crucial role in an eventual treatment for COVID-19. Richardson is an operator at the ALS, and is one of a handful of workers providing essential services to scientists working on COVID-19-related research. Read more »

A Forked Path for Superconductivity

Uranium ditelluride (UTe2) exhibits a form of superconductivity that could, in theory, enable fault-tolerant quantum computing. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy revealed several aspects of the material’s unusual electronic environment, including one-dimensional conducting channels that are orthogonally oriented. Read more »

Porous Electrolyte Frameworks for All-Solid-State Batteries

With the help of microtomography at the ALS, researchers developed a method to produce a porous electrolyte framework that they used to construct a working all-solid-state battery. Such batteries potentially offer a higher energy density, longer cycle life, and better inherent safety than state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. Read more »

Study Leads to Firmer Grasp of Biochemical “Reactive Handle”

Protein crystallography provided new insight into a functional group of molecules that, if added to bacterial enzymes, could enable a variety of alterations to the bacteria’s polymer output. Tweaking enzymes to produce these “reactive handles” is a first step toward biosynthesizing diverse polymers with tailored properties. Read more »

Jason Jed, Systems Manager

Before Jason Jed joined the ALS last month, he had already toured the facility in person and through virtual reality. Is it any wonder that he knows some of the more hidden rooms at the ALS? Read more »

Seeing ‘Under the Hood’ in Batteries

To push battery performance, researchers want to learn how the individual ingredients of battery materials behave beneath the surface. But many techniques only scratch the surface of what’s at work inside batteries. A high-sensitivity x-ray technique is attracting a growing group of scientists because it provides a deeper, more precise dive into battery chemistry. Read more »

Debut of ALS-U Swap-Out Injection Video

An entirely new ring— the accumulator—is a key element of the ALS Upgrade (ALS-U) project. But what, exactly, does it do? How does swap-out injection differ from top-off injection, and how does it enable ALS-U? A short, 90-second explainer video provides clear answers to these and other questions. Read more »

Stefania Trovati, Lead Radiation Physicist

As the lead radiation physicist at the ALS, Stefania Trovati is an expert in characterizing the radiation environment, but her expertise stretches beyond physics. She is also highly knowledgeable about raccoons and many other animals. Read more »