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March 1 Deadline for General User Proposals

The User Office is accepting new General User Proposals (GUPs) from scientists who wish to conduct research at the ALS in the 2023-2 (August–December) cycle. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2023. Applicants are reminded that they may request joint access to the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility at Berkeley Lab, to support their ALS activities. Read more »

First Direct Measurement of Elusive Donnan Potential

Researchers performed the first direct measurement of the Donnan electrical potential, which arises from an imbalance of charges at membrane-solution interfaces. Considered unmeasurable for over a century, the Donnan potential is relevant to a wide range of fields, from cell biology to energy storage and water desalination. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Inna Vishik, 2023 Users’ Executive Committee Chair

Inna Vishik began using synchrotrons in graduate school and conducts even more synchrotron research as a professor. As chair of the UEC, she is working to enhance accessibility to this facility—and has suggestions for fun things to do after beamtime, too! Read more »

New UEC Members for 2023

Welcome to Aidan Coffey, Whitney Loo, Alexander Baker, Tamas Varga, Leonid Sheps, Sophie Morley, and Devin Grabner. Thank you to Rourav Basak, Yingge Du, Stephanie Gilbert Corder, Eric Meshot, Hope Michelsen, Matthijs van Spronsen, and Johanna Nelson Weker for your service. Read more »

Dirac Nodal Line in Hourglass Semimetal Nb3SiTe6

Hourglass fermion in an electronic band structure is protected by the nonsymmorphic symmetry of a layered semimetal Nb3SiTe6. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy demonstrates the band features of an hourglass fermion in k-space, such as band crossings and nodal loops. Read more »

The Donnan Potential, Revealed at Last

Researchers at the ALS recently led the first direct measurement of the Donnan potential, an electric potential that arises from an imbalance of charges at the interface of a charged membrane and a liquid. The work could yield new insights in areas such as ion transport through cellular membranes, ion exchange membranes in energy storage strategies, and water purification technologies. Read more »

2022 Highly Cited Researchers

Clarivate recognizes the true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Congratulations to Jinghua Guo, Zahid Hussain, Sung-Kwan Mo, and Wanli Yang! Read more »

Structural Investigation of Therapeutic Antibodies Using Hydroxyl Radical Protein Footprinting Methods

Well-known high-resolution structural methods are often used to characterize antibody structures, but many require specialized sample preparation that may perturb antibody structure. We describe here the relatively new method of hydroxyl radical protein footprinting, a solution-state method that can provide structural and kinetic information on antibodies or antibody–antigen interactions useful for therapeutic antibody design. Read more »

Gas-phase synthesis of racemic helicenes and their potential role in the enantiomeric enrichment of sugars and amino acids in meteorites

Molecular-beam experiments with isomer-selective photoionization via a targeted, vinylacetylene-mediated gas-phase reaction of aromatic helicenyl radicals coupled with electronic structure calculations and astrochemical modeling reveal an elegant synthetic route to racemic helicenes – ortho-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in which benzene building blocks form helically-shaped molecules. Read more »