Lab Partnering Service Discovery

Joshua Turner is a staff scientist at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, a joint institute between Stanford University and SLAC, as well as at the Linac Coherent Light Source, the world’s first x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) based at SLAC.

He received both a BS in Physics and a BA in Mathematics from UC Santa Barbara, a MA in Physics from Boston University specializing in instrumentation constructed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for magnetic spectroscopy, and a PhD in Physics from the University of Oregon. During his doctoral studies, Joshua was an Advanced Light Source Doctoral Fellow at LBNL where he built a coherent scattering endstation to study fluctuations in quantum materials. He also spent time as a visiting researcher at the Brookhaven National Laboratory where his work focused on x-ray diffraction, inelastic scattering, and nanofabrication in strongly correlated materials. He then moved to Stony Brook University, NY to work as a postdoctoral fellow, lecturer, and then adjunct assistant professor, specializing in coherent imaging to investigate biological cells and nanoporous glass. 

Josh is a leader in ultra-fast x-ray studies, which he has applied to an array of scientific fields, from chemistry and materials physics to the study of plasmas found in large planets and hot astrophysical objects. His most recent focus is on an innovative technology which utilizes new modes of the XFEL and can be used to examine subtle fluctuations in materials using short, coherent x-ray pulses. This will advance the frontier in quantum materials through the observation of novel types of order found in exotic systems such as topological magnets, unconventional superconductors, and strongly spin-orbit coupled Mott insulators. He is the recipient of the Department of Energy’s Early Career Award, a prestigious award granted to further the individual research programs of outstanding scientists with demonstrated successful research activities and potential for solving important problems to the U. S. government. He has published over 100 scientific articles with one-third of them in high-profile journals. 

Theoretical chemist Todd Martínez develops and applies new methods that predict and explain how atoms move in molecules. These methods are used both to design new molecules and to understand the behavior of those that already exist. His research group studies the response of molecules to light (photochemistry) and external force (mechanochemistry). Photochemistry is a critical part of human vision, single-molecule spectroscopy, harnessing solar energy (either to make fuels or electricity), and even organic synthesis. Mechanochemistry represents a novel scheme to promote unusual reactions and potentially to create self-healing materials that resist degradation. The underlying tools embody the full gamut of quantum mechanical effects governing molecules, from chemical bond breaking/formation to electron/proton transfer and electronic excited states.

Martínez received his PhD in chemistry from UCLA in 1994. After postdoctoral study at UCLA and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in 1996. In 2009, he joined the faculty at Stanford, where he is now the Ehrsam and Franklin Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Photon Science at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has received numerous awards for his contributions, including a MacArthur Fellowship (commonly known as the “genius award”). He is co-editor of Annual Reviews in Physical Chemistry, associate editor of The Journal of Chemical Physics, and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Current research in the Martínez lab aims to make molecular modeling both predictive and routine. New approaches to interactive molecular simulation are being developed, in which users interact with a virtual-reality based molecular modeling kit that fully understands quantum mechanics. New techniques to discover heretofore unknown chemical reactions are being developed and tested, exploiting the many efficient methods that the Martínez group has introduced for solving quantum mechanical problems quickly, using a combination of physical/chemical insights and commodity videogaming hardware. For more details, please visit http://mtzweb.stanford.edu.

Steve is Director of the Applied Energy Division at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The Applied Energy Division conducts research on the electric grid, batteries, photovoltaics, and advanced manufacturing. The Applied Energy Division is part of the Energy Sciences Directorate, which conducts research in chemistry, materials, computer science, and applied energy. SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Previously, Steve developed and managed research programs at Stanford University in artificial intelligence, computer science, energy, and sustainability. Steve helped to create new programs at Stanford such as the Institute for Human-Centered AI, SAIL-Toyota Center for AI Research, Stanford Data Science Initiative, Bay Area PV Consortium, and Energy and Environment Affiliates Program. Prior to joining Stanford, Steve was president and CEO of solar energy company Cyrium Technologies, consultant for the National Renewable Energy Lab and US Department of Energy, venture capitalist at Worldview Technology Partners, vice president at SDL (JDSU), and member of the technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Steve received a PhD and MS from Stanford and BS from UC Berkeley, all in electrical engineering. Steve is a Fellow of the SPIE, a former Board member of the MRS, and a former utilities commissioner for the City of Palo Alto.

Wah Chiu received his BA in Physics and PhD in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Wallenberg-Bienenstock Professor and a professor in the Department of Bioengineering, Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. He is a pioneer in methodology development for electron cryo-microscopy. His work has made multiple transformational contributions in developing single particle electron cryo-microscopy as a tool for the structural determination of molecular machines at atomic resolution.

For three decades, Dr. Chiu directs a NIH funded 3DEM Resource Center. He has solved many cryo-EM structures including viruses, chaperonins, membrane proteins, ion channels, cytoskeleton protein complexes, protein-RNA complexes, DNA and RNA in collaboration with many scientists around the world. His 3DEM Resource Center continues to establish high standard testing and characterization protocols for cryoEM instrumentation and to develop new image processing and modeling algorithms for cryo-EM structure determination.

Dr. Chiu’s research, collaboration and training efforts have been recognized by his elected membership to the Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2008), and the United States National Academy of Sciences (2012), in addition to several honors including the Distinguished Science Award from the Microscopy Society of America (2014) and the Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Helsinki, Finland (2014).

Daniel is Head of the Machine Learning (ML) Initiative at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The ML initiative coordinates the application of ML techniques across the range of science at the lab, with special focus in autonomous facility and experimental control, edge-ML, sparse and irregular data sets, prognostics, and new approaches to data analysis. Previously, Daniel led the Accelerator Directorate’s ML department, as well as working in the Linac Coherent Light Source Laser Division. Prior to joining SLAC, Daniel worked as a conservation scientist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and as a data analyst for WhenU.com. Daniel received his PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford, and his AB in Physics from Harvard.