Science advances our fundamental understanding of materials, chemical reactions and biomolecular systems, to address the world’s challenges in areas such as energy, technology, food supplies and human health. Many of the most critical scientific questions to address these challenges require characterizing the structural states of matter, their evolutions and reactions that dictate function. SSRL’s X-ray beam lines and tools make this information accessible while tracking them in real time with the required temporal and spatial resolution. The science at SSRL is organized within our three divisions, Chemistry and Catalysis, Materials Science, and Structural Molecular Biology, with our focus being on enabling the research of our scientific user community.
Chemistry & Catalysis
Everything we do and everything we see around us has chemistry at its core – from the way living things function to the fuels that give us light, heat and mobility and the consumer goods that make life comfortable.
Materials Science
Our Materials Science programs provide a comprehensive set of tools and methodologies to shrink the gap between computational and experimental materials discovery with a focus on the function of new materials.
Structural Biology
The goal of our structural molecular biology division is understanding biological structure and function, and applying this knowledge to address a wide range of problems within a large, worldwide multidisciplinary effort.
Biological Sciences
The Biosciences Division builds on our unique strengths in X-ray based research to explore biological function on multiple scales, from individual genes, proteins and enzymes to molecular ecosystems.
Cryo-Electron Microscopy
The Cryo-EM facility provides access to state-of-the-art instruments for data collection towards atomic resolution structure determination of biochemically purified single particles.
Nano-X
Nano-X houses an advanced electron beam lithography tool and associated processing and metrology equipment. The toolset is aimed towards providing rapid nano-prototyping capabilities.