Lab Partnering Service Discovery

Thomas Schenkel is a physicist and senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he is the interim Director of the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division (http://atap.lbl.gov/). Thomas received his Ph.D. in physics from the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Following time as a postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he joined Berkeley Lab. His research interests include novel accelerator concepts, materials far from equilibrium, exploration of fusion processes, and spin qubit architectures. Thomas also teaches a graduate course on particle accelerators at UC Berkeley.

Thomas worked on variations of time-of-flight mass spectrometry to characterize the environment of bio-molecules as a postdoc. This theme has now come up in the current Covid-19 crisis with new ideas for mass spectrometry and imaging of viruses in droplets.

COVID-19-related research: "Laser, Biosciences Researchers Combine Efforts to Study Viruses in Droplets"

Areas of expertise: accelerators, fusion, lasers, quantum, spin qubits

Haruko Wainwright received her MS in nuclear engineering (2006), MA in statistics (2010), and PhD in nuclear engineering (2010) at University of California, Berkeley. Her initial research interest was to investigate the environmental impact of nuclear waste and nuclear weapon productions. Her PhD dissertation focused on Bayesian geostatistical inverse modeling for subsurface characterization at the uranium-contaminated DOE Hanford site. Since then, she has broadened her research interest to various environmental problems, including Arctic ecosystem responses to climate change, groundwater contamination, and deep-subsurface CO2 storage. In addition to working in many interdisciplinary projects, she is a deputy lead of the site application thrust in the Advanced Simulation Capability for Environmental Management project, leading the site application at the Savannah River Site F-Area. She is also on the leadership team of Institute for Resilient Communities, which aims to prepare communities for radiological and other disasters through research, education and outreach activities.

For more information: https://eesa.lbl.gov/profiles/haruko-murakami-wainwright/

COVID-19-related research: "Using Machine Learning to Estimate COVID-19’s Seasonal Cycle"

Ben Brown is a statistical scientist in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology division within Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area. He specializes in the development of novel machine algorithms, usually for the biological and environmental sciences at Berkeley Lab. His group develops “third-wave” learning algorithms that combine the interpretability and reliability of classical statistics with the predictive performance of deep learning. They specialize in designing learning paradigms for complex, high-dimensional systems that enable accurate uncertainty quantification, model discovery, feature selection, and inference. Dr. Brown's expertise include statistics, machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence.

COVID-19-related research: "Using Machine Learning to Estimate COVID-19's Seasonal Cycle". Other principal investigators include: Eoin Brodie, Nicola Falco, Dan Feldman, Zhao Hao, Chaincy Kuo, Joshua Ladau, and Haruko Wainwright. 

Jonathan Carter is the Associate Laboratory Director for Computing Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The Computing Sciences Area at Berkeley Lab encompasses the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Division (NERSC), the Scientific Networking Division (home to the Energy Sciences Network, ESnet) and the Computational Research Division.

Dr. Carter's research interests are in the evaluation of system architectures and algorithms for high-performance computing, and in computational chemistry and physics simulations. Recently he has been engaged in a project to look at computer architectures beyond the end of Moore's Law and has focused on techniques to perform simulations for computational chemistry using newly developed quantum computing test-beds. He brings a unique perspective to his work, formed from using computing resources as a domain scientist, from performing performance analyses of computer architectures, and from his experience in moving large-scale computational systems from idea to reality.

Carter joined Computing Sciences as part of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Division at the end of 1996, working with a broad range of scientists to optimize applications, transition projects from shared-memory vector systems to massively parallel systems, and providing in-depth consulting for materials scientists and chemists using NERSC. He became group leader of the consulting group at the end of 2005. During his time at NERSC, he led or played a lead role in teams that procured and deployed three of the fastest computing systems in the world.

Areas of expertise: quantum computing, beyond Moore's Law computer architectures, high-performance computing (HPC) / supercomputing, and computational chemistry.

Irfan Siddiqi received his AB (1997) in chemistry & physics from Harvard University. He then went on to receive a PhD (2002) in applied physics from Yale University, where he stayed as a postdoctoral researcher until 2005. Irfan joined the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley in the summer of 2006. In 2006, Irfan was awarded the George E. Valley, Jr. prize by the American Physical Society for the development of the Josephson bifurcation amplifier. In 2007, he was awarded the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the Hellman Family Faculty Fund, and the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Partnership Faculty Fund.

His group, the Quantum Nanoelectronics Laboratory, investigates the quantum coherence of various condensed matter systems ranging from microscopic nanomagnets such as single molecule magnets to complex macroscopic electrical circuits. To measure the electric and magnetic properties of these quantum systems, they are developing novel microwave frequency quantum-noise-limited amplifiers based on superconducting Josephson junctions formed by both oxide tunnel barriers and carbon nanotube weak links. Current topics of research include the dependence of quantum coherence on system complexity, the non-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics of non-linear oscillators, the quantum coherence of single molecules, and topological architectures for maximum coherence in superconducting circuits.

Areas of expertise: quantum computing, condensed matter physics, superconducting qubits, quantum limited amplifiers, quantum circuits

Michael Connolly is a Principal Scientific Engineering Associate at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and an organic chemist with 20+ years of expertise in combinatorial and automated synthesis methods and nanomaterial discovery. His research focus is the development of combinatorial discovery technologies and new biopolymer nanomaterials. He has developed a class of bio-inspired polymer called ‘peptoids’ that have found utility in drug discovery, drug delivery, diagnostics, and materials science. Key contributions included the development of new synthetic methods, new sequencing, and characterization methods for peptoids.

Additional information available at this link.

COVID-19-related research: "Scientists Aim Gene-Targeting Breakthrough against COVID-19" (cellular delivery system/anti-viral agent)

Mike's research interests are in mathematical modeling of environmental systems and quality, uncertainty analysis, value-of-information decision analysis, water-energy integrated assessment, and sensor-data fusion. Mike has a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering and an MS degree in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. He also has MS and BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. Mike is a California-licensed Professional Engineer (Civil), and has worked at an environmental engineering firm where he conducted environmental health risk assessments. He is Leader of the Sustainable Energy Systems Group and former Leader of the Airflow and Pollutant Transport Group (Indoor Environment Dept.). Mike has been at LBNL since 1998.  

COVID-19-related research: "New Research Launched on Airborne Virus Transmission in Buildings"

Blake Simmons serves as the Chief Scientific and Technology Officer and Vice President of the Deconstruction Division at the US Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in Emeryville. After earning his BS in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, Dr. Simmons continued his studies at Tulane University and received his doctorate in the same field. Dr. Simmons worked as part of the Senior Management team at Sandia National Laboratories for 15 years, most recently serving as the Senior Manager of Advanced Biomanufacturing as well as the Biomass Program Manager. He joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in February of 2016 as the Division Director of Biological Systems and Engineering. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University California-Berkeley and the University of Queensland in Australia. His expertise includes advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals, biomanufacturing, ionic liquids, abiotic-biotic interfaces, biomass pretreatment, enzyme engineering, biofuel cells, templated nanomaterials, microfluidics, desalination, and biomineralization.

He is a staff scientist and facility director at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry leading research in thermoelectrics and hydrogen storage. His research focuses on the materials and physics of mass, heat, and charge transport in complex hybrid nanomaterials. His expertise is developing new materials and measurement tools for solid-state energy storage and conversion applications; investigating transport at the organic-inorganic interface; and identifying energy efficient desalination methods.

Areas of expertise: energy storage, hydrogen storage, thermoelectrics, new materials for desalination and water remediation, 2D materials, nanotechnology

Eleanor A. Blakely, is a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Senior Staff Biophysicist with 45 y of professional experience in molecular, cellular and animal radiobiological research directed at studying the basic mechanisms of radiation responses, with an emphasis on charged particle radiation effects. She is also a Clinical Professor of Radiation Medicine (nontenured) at Loma Linda University, School of Medicine, Loma Linda, California. Dr. Blakely earned a PhD in Physiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana as a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Special Fellow in Radiation Science and Protection.

Her professional activities have included service on advisory panels for several hospitals, universities, and numerous federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); on Editorial Boards for several journals: Space Power, Radiation Research, Journal of Radiation Research, and NPJ Microgravity; Appointed Member, Diagnostic Radiology Study Section-Division of Research Grants, NIH; Advisory Committee Member, International Atomic Energy Agency; Scientific Director, NASA Space Research Summer School; and Elected Officer of the Radiation Research Society: Biology Councilor and Secretary-Treasurer.

In 2000 she was elected to NCRP, and has served on Scientific Committee (SC) 75 that produced NCRP Report No. 132, Radiation Protection Guidance for Activities in Low-Earth Orbit; and SC 1-7 that produced NCRP Report No. 153, Information Needed to Make Radiation Protection Recommendations for Space Missions Beyond Low-Earth Orbit. She has received several awards including the Robert Emerson Graduate Teaching Award, School of Life Sciences, University of Illinois, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Outstanding Performance Award, the DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Technology Transfer Award, and an RD100 award from Research and Development Magazine.