David Bushnell, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 Dave Bushnell is a Sr. Research Associate in the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University. His research focuses on using structural methods such as electron microscopy and protein crystallography to understand and control the process of gene expression. Dave received his BS degree from Cornell University and went on to complete a PhD in Biophysics from Stanford University. While working in the lab of Prof. Roger Kornberg, Dave was part of the team that solved the atomic structure of the 10 subunit yeast RNA Polymerase II which contributed to Prof. Kornberg being awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dave has continued his structural studies of RNA polymerase II mechanism including solving the structure of RNA Polymerase II with the inhibitor alpha-amanitin. Recently he has been involved with Cocrystal Pharma Inc., a small start up that uses structure guided drug discovery techniques to develop novel anti-viral therapies. Dave’s first beamtime at SSRL was May 5th, 1994 and he has been an active user ever since. In addition to experience at SSRL he has performed experiments at LCLS, ALS, APS, CHESS and NSLS. |
Kelly Chacón, Reed College, Portland, OR 97202-8199 Kelly is Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Reed College. She studies how metal ions are trafficked in the cell by using a mixture of biochemistry and spectroscopy. Her lab is particularly interested in catching the physical act of metal ion transfer from one metalloprotein to another, as well as characterizing newly discovered metalloproteins. This work heavily relies upon bi-yearly lab trips to a number of synchrotron lightsources. She has been an SSRL user since 2010 and has also conducted research at Argonne and Brookhaven National Labs. Her experience with dilute biological EXAFS began when she was a lab technician, prompting her to devote her subsequent graduate work on selenomethionine active site labeling as a spectroscopic probe of metalloprotein structure-function and metal transfer. She was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Oregon Health & Science University working with Professor Ninian J. Blackburn, and is also the 2016 Chair of the Gordon Research Seminar in Bioinorganic Chemistry. She received her B.S. in Chemistry with honors from Portland State University in 2009. |
Justin Chartron, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94025
Justin Chartron is a postdoctoral fellow working with Judith Frydman at Stanford University. His experience in protein crystallography began in 2001 as a high school intern with Dave Stout at The Scripps Research Institute where he crystallized several proteins whose structures were determined using data collected at SSRL. He continued working with Dave as an undergraduate at UC San Diego, and solved his first structure using anomalous scattering at BL9-2. He went to Caltech for graduate school fully intending to use the soon-to-be commissioned BL12-2. Working with Bil Clemons, he had the pleasure of watching the Molecular Observatory mature, and he has used its resources to determine numerous structures of proteins involved in membrane targeting. He complemented high resolution structures with small angle X-ray scattering data at BL4-2. In addition to SSRL, he uses ALS and APS. As a postdoc, he has initiated several structural projects in the Frydman group, which had not previously performed crystallography. He has trained several group members, and in recent months has used SSRL to determine structures of molecular machines involved in protein folding. His research focuses on the mechanisms discriminating alternative nascent protein fates.
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Scott R. Daly, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52317 Scott joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iowa in 2014 after spending two years as a faculty member at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. He performed his graduate work in chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Professor Gregory S. Girolami. His thesis focused on the synthesis and characterization of volatile inorganic compounds for thin film applications. After graduating, he accepted a Seaborg Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. There he joined the LANL XAS program and spent two years investigating the role of covalency and electronic structure on actinide extractant selectivity. He has been an SSRL user since 2010 and has participated with NUFO at the 2013 user science exhibition and Congressional office visits in DC. His current research uses synchrotron spectroscopy and in-situ XAS to understand how chemical bonding in coordination complexes can be manipulated to enhance small molecule reactivity and ligand binding affinity. |
Lisa Dunn SSRL User Research Administration, 2575 Sand Hill Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 (SSRL Liason, Ex Officio) Lisa has worked at SSRL since 1986, and has been part of the User Research Administration team since 2000. Lisa manages the administration proposal review and scheduling for macromolecular crystallography and biological small angle scattering beam lines. Lisa earned her Bachelor of Science degree from San Jose State University. |
Petra Fromme Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (Ex Officio, LCLS UEC)
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Colleen Hansel Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Dept. of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1050 (SSRL UEC 2014 Chair) Colleen is an Associate Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was previously an Associate Professor at Harvard University. The foundation of her research is metal biogeochemistry and microbe-mineral interactions. Colleen conducted her graduate work at Stanford University with Scott Fendorf exploring microbial mediated Fe mineral transformations. She continued her research at Stanford as a postdoc, where she identified novel mechanisms of microbial Mn(II) oxidation and Mn oxide formation. Currently, Colleen’s research group continues to explore the mechanisms of microbially mediated metal (e.g., Fe, Mn, Hg) cycling and mineralization and the subsequent impact of those transformations on the ecology and health of microbial populations. Colleen has been a user at SSRL since 1998 and has also conducted research at ALS and APS. |
Vinayak V. Hassan, Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA 95054 Vinayak is a Process Engineer in the Office of the CTO at Applied Materials. He has a Masters in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University. His graduate research was in the field of ultrafast materials science with Professor David Reis in Applied Physics. The focus of his research was to study the non-equilibrium phonon dynamics in semiconductors, using time resolved optical & x ray spectroscopy. After he joined Applied Materials in 2011, he became part of a team developing advanced materials technology for the semiconductor industry. His current research is geared towards understanding the optical & electrical properties of sub nanometer semiconductor films. He has an extensive background in materials characterization of thin films. Some of his past & current projects involve x-ray scattering measurements at APS, SSRL & ALS. He recognizes the crucial role synchrotron facilities play in the advancement of the semiconductor industry. |
Debra Hausladen, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 Debra is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Scott Fendorf’s laboratory at Stanford University. Prior to studying soil biogeochemistry, she worked in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering developing a nanowire membrane for passive sampling of hydrophobic organic contaminants. Her current research focuses on the mobility of trace metals (e.g., Cr, Mn, Fe) in soils under fluctuating redox conditions. Debra combines synchrotron-based techniques (e.g., bulk and micro X-ray absorption spectroscopy, micro-X-ray fluorescence mapping, X-ray micro-tomography) with bulk chemical analysis and molecular microbiological techniques to understand how microbial communities influence contaminant cycling within physically complex soils and sediments. She has been a frequent user of SSRL since 2010 and has also conducted research at ALS. |
Chris Kim, Chapman University, Physical Sciences, One University Ave., Orange, CA 92866 (Ex officio SNUG) Chris is a Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Schmidt College of Science and Technology at Chapman University in Southern California. He conducted his graduate work at Stanford University under Gordon Brown and continued his research as a post-doc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with Glenn Waychunas. He has been a user at SSRL since 1996 and has also conducted research at the ALS and APS. Currently, he is studying trends in the speciation, concentration, and distribution of heavy metals in mine wastes as well as the mechanisms and extent of metal uptake and (co-)precipitation with iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles. Chris is also involved in increasing opportunities for undergraduate students to conduct research at national synchrotron facilities. |
Cathy Knotts, SSRL User Research Administration Manager, 2575 Sand Hill Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 (SSRL Liaison, Ex Officio) Cathy has managed SSRL User Research Administration since November 2000, taking on the additonal responsibilities for establishing and managing a joint SSRL/LCLS User Office from 2007-2015 (LCLS began operations with the first user assisted commissioning experiments in 2009). Before joining SLAC, Cathy managed administrative operations and corporate communications in the biotechnology industry (1994-2000). Prior to moving to California to help start a biotech company, she was a management analyst for the National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health in Maryland. Cathy graduated from the University of Maryland majoring in Health Science and Policy. |
Stosh Kozimor, Los Alamos National Laboratory, C-NR, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (SSRL UEC Past Chair 2015) Stosh Kozimor is a staff member at LANL. He conducted his graduate research with Professor William J. Evans at the University of California, Irvine in inorganic and organometallic synthesis, and his work was recognized in 2005 by the UCI Department of Chemistry Joan Rowland Award for meritorious performance in graduate studies. In the same year, he was offered a Director's Fellowship from LANL to continue his studies in actinide science. However he deferred, and accepted a position at the University of California with Professor Jeffrey R. Long to study magnetic exchange between actinides and transition metals. During this time he was awarded a Distinguished Reines Postdoctoral Fellowship at LANL and presented an opportunity to work in a completely different field, using synchrotron-generated radiation to probe electronic structure. Currently his interests lie in research that involves energy and the environment through fields loosely defined by synthesis, electronic structure, and synchrotron spectroscopy. |
Dan Lin, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 Daniel (Dan) Lin is a fourth-year graduate student in Andre Hoelz's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. His projects focus on determining the structure of the nuclear pore complex using a combination of x-ray crystallography and other biochemical and biophysical techniques. Many of these projects involve x-ray diffraction experiments of large protein complexes that exhibit weak and/or anisotropic diffraction and require optimal beamline performance and data collection strategies. Prior to joining the Hoelz laboratory, Dan worked in Niraj Tolia's laboratory at the Washington University School of Medicine on the structure of malaria invasion proteins while studying as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. Dan is a frequent user of beamlines at SSRL and APS and has also performed experiments at ALS and NSLS. |
Feng Lin, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA 24061 Feng is Assistant Professor, Virgnia Tech Department of Chemistry. Feng holds a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Tianjin University, and an MSc degree and a PhD degree in Materials Science from the Colorado School of Mines. Feng joins the department after working for QuantumScape Corporation as a Senior Member of Technical Staff and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a postdoc. Prof. Lin’s expertise includes energy materials for batteries, smart windows and catalysis, as well as advanced analytical techniques for the in operando characterization of these technologies at various length scales. His research activities at Virginia Tech will focus primarily on electrochemical energy systems, including rechargeable batteries and single atom electrocatalysts for renewable fuels. |
Lisa Mayhew, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO Lisa graduated from Colgate University in 2000 with a BA in Geology. She began her Master’s research investigating the relationship between the geochemical characteristics and microbial communities present at fumaroles on the Galapagos Islands in 2004 and graduated with a Master’s degree in Geological Sciences from the University of Idaho in 2006. She then moved to Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado – Boulder working with Dr. Alexis Templeton to design laboratory experiments to investigate the production of H2 gas from water-rock reactions at low temperatures (<150°C). A major component of her PhD thesis work was the implementation of synchrotron radiation based techniques to investigate the partitioning of Fe into the diverse, microscale secondary mineral phases formed during the water-rock reactions. She worked with Dr. Sam Webb on SSRL BL2-3 to develop a method of multiple energy mapping within the Fe K-edge, coupled with μXANES analyses, to investigate the speciation and distribution of Fe at the microscale. She also has experience collecting bulk XANES and EXAFS spectra from powdered rocks and minerals on SSRL BL 4-1 and 11-2. These spectra have been incorporated into an extensive Fe model compound spectral library. The application of synchrotron techniques has enabled unique insights into the mechanism of H2 production from low temperature water-rock reactions. She also implemented this method to investigate the potential for microorganisms, present in the reaction system, to affect the reaction pathways and products. Lisa completed her PhD in June 2012 and is a Research Associate in the Templeton Geomicrobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado – Boulder where she continues to apply synchrotron techniques to new experimental systems and investigate samples from natural geologic systems undergoing similar low temperature reactions. She plans to expand her synchrotron experience to include surface spectroscopic techniques. |
Blaine Mooers, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73190 Blaine entered crystallography as a graduate student by working on problems in DNA structure with Dr. Shing Ho at Oregon State University. He switched to problems in protein structure as a post-doc with Dr. Brian Matthews at the University of Oregon. While a post-doc, he started using synchrotron radiation to collect atomic resolution data from proteins and made his first trip to SSRL in 1999 where he has been returning almost every year. He started a lab at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center that is focused on structural studies of RNAs from the RNA editing system in the mitochondrion of trypanosomes. His lab has been involved in SAXS studies for the past three years and started to make regular trips to BL 4-2 in addition to the protein crystallography beam lines. http://structuralbiology.ou.edu/ |
Edward Snell, Hauptman Woodward Institute, Buffalo, NY 14203 Eddie's background is X-ray crystallography, bio spectroscopy and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), which are complementary techniques that are invaluable to furthering the structural and mechanistic information on the biological world. |
Mariano Trigo, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94025 Mariano is a staff scientist at the Stanford PULSE Institute, a Stanford independent laboratory focused on ultrafast and short wavelength science and technology. |
Beth Wurzburg, LBNL, Joint Genome Institute, Berkeley, CA 94305 USA (Ex Officio NUFO) Beth was a Research Associate at the LBNL Joint Genome Institute. Previously, Beth was a Research Associate in the laboratory of Prof. Ted Jardetzky. She trained as a protein biochemist (Don Wiley's laboratory) and as a crystallographer (Ted Jardetzky's laboratory), and she has been collecting data at synchrotrons since 1995. Her research interests include biophysical studies of proteins of the immune system and of human pathogens. |