January 2019 – July 2022
Every Friday in a feature series in Elements, meet one of the 12 early career Lab scientists who competed in the 2019 SLAM pitch contest. This week, watch and read Lauren Jabusch’s pitch on “Finding Bacteria the Root of Their Dreams.” https://slam.lbl.gov/2019-slam/2019-finalists/lauren-jabusch
With its deep expertise in materials research, materials design, and energy storage technologies, Berkeley Lab is working on better battery alternatives. Gerbrand Ceder details four battery technologies being studied by Lab scientists that could make a big difference in the future. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/12/11/a-peek-into-the-battery-technology-pipeline/
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has received a grant to help preserve recordings made by Alexandar Graham Bell. The museum, in collaboration with Berkeley Lab, has recovered sound from recordings at Graham’s Volta Laboratories. https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonians-national-museum-american-history-receives-save-americas-treasures
Through the Department of Energy’s Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, DOE’s Office of Science has awarded allocations of supercomputer access to 47 science projects for 2020, including six groups involving researchers from Berkeley Lab. https://cs.lbl.gov/news-media/news/2019/doe-announces-2020-incite-allocation-awards/
The first paper describing sorghum’s response to drought was recently published in PNAS. EPICON — a consortium that includes the Joint Genome Institute — led a large-scale field experiment to uncover the mechanisms behind sorghum’s capacity to produce high yields despite drought conditions. https://jgi.doe.gov/dealing-with-drought-uncovering-sorghum-secrets/
Fiber-optic cables that constitute a global undersea telecommunications network could one day help scientists study offshore earthquakes and the geologic structures hidden deep beneath the ocean surface. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/12/02/underwater-telecom-cables-make-superb-seismic-network/
Full-time, career, non-postdoc Lab researchers who received Ph.D.’s no earlier than Jan. 1, 2009, are eligible for DOE Early Career Research Program funding. Director Witherell hosts a talk and networking event on Dec. 6, 9:30 to 11 a.m., in Bldg. 15-253. http://ecrp.lbl.gov/
“Ideas can come from anywhere; their development and realization arise from teams of people working together in an environment of support,” wrote Deputy Lab Director for Research Horst Simon, in a message on the importance of mentorship in team science shared with researchers and Lab leadership. https://stratcomm-elements.lbl.gov/2019/12/05/the-important-role-of-mentorship-in-team-science/
Every Friday in a feature series in Elements, meet one of the 12 early career Lab scientists who competed in the 2019 SLAM pitch contest. This week, watch and read Akanksha Menon’s pitch on “From Waste to Clean Water Using Sunlight.” https://slam.lbl.gov/2019-slam/2019-finalists/akanksha-menon
Scientists at Berkeley Lab are the first to use cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to image atomic changes in artificial proteins known as “peptoids.” Their findings have implications for the synthesis of soft, 2D materials for a wide variety of applications. https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/12/04/atomic-scale-artificial-proteins/