Dear Foundry Community,
As 2023 comes to an end and we reflect back on the past year, I am proud to share some recent accomplishments with you.
First, I’m proud to report that in FY2023 (Oct 2022 – Sep 2023), the Foundry supported 1090 users (up from 968 the previous year), equivalent to our pre-pandemic numbers. Nearly 250 of those were remote users, which speaks to how user access has evolved throughout the pandemic. Impressively, our users represent 785 projects from 199 institutions across 35 states and 26 countries, resulting in an estimated 300 publications where 57% were high impact (I.F. >7 as defined by DOE). You can read about the results of these collaborations on the Foundry website and review our interactive factsheet for FY2023.
Earlier this month, we celebrated several Foundry staff being recipients of 2023 Berkeley Lab Director’s Awards, which recognizes the significant achievements of Berkeley Lab employees. Archana Raja, was awarded a 2023 LBNL Director’s Award for Exceptional Early Scientific Career Achievement for “providing novel pathways into controlling energy, charge and information transport within 2-D solids on the length scale of individual electrons by utilizing 2-D material heterostructures and their sensitivity to the local environment.” Additionally, the Foundry’s ISM team: Michael Connolly, Rohan Dhall, Liana Klivansky, Tracy Mattox, Anne Pham, and Jeffrey Urban, were collectively awarded a 2023 LBNL Director’s award for Safety for the development, publication, and promotion of cross-disciplinary approaches to safety that support inclusive team science.
I am excited to share news of our enhanced capabilities, opening doors to unprecedented avenues of exploration. The Nanofabrication facility’s new Cluster Tool is operational, though we are still awaiting delivery of a few components for its final configuration. The Imaging facility has a new Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope operating at millikelvin temperatures and high magnetic fields, and we expect the optical components that will enable THz pulses to be delivered in the summer. Finally, the Nanofabrication facility also will be installing our new Physical Property Measurement System, which will make automated electrical, magnetic, and optical measurements of quantum materials and devices at temperatures down to 100mK and magnetic fields up to 14T.
As we approach the holiday season, I want to express my deepest gratitude to each member of the Molecular Foundry community. Your passion, resilience, and collaborative spirit are the driving forces behind our accomplishments and a constant inspiration for us all. If you’d like to get more directly involved in the Foundry community, our User Executive Committee (UEC), which serves as the collective voice of the community, is currently accepting nominations for new members and I encourage you to participate.
All the Best,
Kristin
Read the November 2023 Newsletter
