Jessica Boland
Dr. Jessica Boland is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow and Senior Lecturer in functional materials and devices within the Photon Science Institute at the University of Manchester. Her research expertise focuses on terahertz frequency material characterisation of semiconductor and topological nanomaterials. She is the technical lead for the CUSTOM facility at Manchester, which provides cyrogenic and room temperature near-field microscopy.
Jin Ju Chen
Dr Chen leads a research team in Biointerface Engineering at Newcastle University, UK. She is a Principal Editor of Journal of Materials Research and Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports. Her research covers nanobiomechanics of eukaryotic cells and bacteria, antimicrobial surfaces, biofilm control, cell-materials interactions and biofilm modelling. Her research is mainly sponsored by EPSRC grants, The Royal Society, and BBSRC funded National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC). https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/jinjuchen.html
Tanya Dahms
Born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Tanya attained a co-operative B. Sc. in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Waterloo (1990), a Ph. D. in Biophysics (1996) from Ottawa University at the National Research Council (NRC) campus, a Postdoctoral Fellowship in protein X-ray crystallography at Purdue University, and a Research Associateship in advanced microscopy at NRC. Tanya is a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Regina where she launched the atomic force microscopy (AFM) facility in 2000. Of special interest to her research group is how xenobiotics, such as herbicides and antifungals, impact nontarget (microbes, human cells) and target (opportunistic pathogens) organisms, respectively. The Dahms group routinely develops new microscopic methods for studying live cells at the nanoscale to help assess environmental and health impacts. Dahms has been the recipient of various awards, including a visiting fellowship to the National Institutes of Health, AstraZeneca Research Award, Canadian Cancer Society Award and the YMCA Woman of the Year Award.
Sergei Kalinin
Sergei Kalinin is the director of the Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials (IFIM) and distinguished staff member at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his MS degree from Moscow State University in 1998 and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (with Dawn Bonnell) in 2002.
His research presently focuses on the applications of big data and artificial intelligence methods in atomically resolved imaging by scanning transmission electron microscopy and scanning probes, as well as mesoscopic studies of electromechanical and transport phenomena via scanning probe microscopy.
Sergei has co-authored >600 publications, with a total citation of >25,000 and an h-index of >78. He is a fellow of MRS, APS, IoP, IEEE, Foresight Institute, and AVS; a recipient of the RMS medal for Scanning Probe Microscopy (2015); Blavatnik Award for Physical Sciences (2018), Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (2009); Burton medal of Microscopy Society of America (2010); 3 R&D100 Awards (2008, 2010, and 2016); and a number of other distinctions.
Jiro Kumaki
Jiro Kumaki received his BS (1980) and MS degrees (1982) from Kyoto University and PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (1992). While working for Toray Industries, Inc. (1982–2003), he joined the Ogata Fine Polymer Project (1984–1986) and the Hashimoto Polymer Phasing Project (1993–1995) of the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). After working for the Yashima Super-Structured Helix Project (ERATO, JST) as a group leader (2003–2008), he moved to Yamagata University as a full professor in 2008. He received the Award of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in 2014 for “Observation of Polymer Chain Structures by Atomic Force Microscopy”. His research interests include polymer physics, ultra-thin films, and atomic force microscopy of polymers at a molecular level.
Yongtao Liu
Dr. Yongtao Liu is a postdoctoral research associate working in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Yongtao Liu received my B.S. in materials chemistry from the School of Chemistry, Nankai University and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Yongtao Liu is the recipient of Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award, American Vacuum Society Graduate Research Award, and Joseph E. Spruiell Award for Excellence in Research. Dr. Yongtao Liu’s current research interest is developing machine learning-driven automated and autonomous scanning probe microscopy.
Liisa Lutter
Liisa Lutter is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Prof. David Eisenberg at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Liisa received her B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Kent (Dr. Wei-Feng Xue group), and recently held an early career researcher role at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Liisa’s research is focused on elucidating the role of misfolded protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases through the integrative use of structural biology and biophysical methods, and includes developing computational tools for atomic force microscopy (AFM) image analysis to achieve this.
Wouter Roos
Wouter Roos obtained his PhD in biophysics in Heidelberg and after a post-doc period at the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung (Stuttgart) and Institut Curie (Paris) he went to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam to focus on Physical Virology approaches. In 2015 he accepted the chair in Molecular Biophysics at the Zernike Institute, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Here Roos is heading a research group focusing on mechanics and dynamics from molecular to cellular length scales, including studies on viral self-assembly and mechanics, extra-cellular vesicles and membrane proteins. By using techniques such as (High Speed-)AFM, Optical Tweezers and Fluorescence Microscopy, the lab is aiming to describe and unravel physical principles of (sub)cellular mechanics and dynamics and to elucidate mechanisms behind protein and supramolecular assembly functionality.
Adam Sweetman
Adam Sweetman is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. He obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2010, and subsequently held postdoctoral research positions at the same institute. In 2012 he held a JSPS Short term fellowship at NIMS in Tsukuba, Japan, and from 2014-2017 was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Nottingham. Since 2018 he has held his current position at the University of Leeds, where his research interests are focused on understanding the nature of interatomic and intermolecular forces via ultra-high-resolution scanning probe microscopy techniques.
Neil Thomson
Neil H Thomson is Associate Professor and Reader in Biological Physics and Bionanotechnology, with a joint position between the Schools of Dentistry and Physics & Astronomy at the University of Leeds, UK. He received his PhD in Biophysics under the direction of Prof. Mervyn Miles FRS, from the University of Bristol, UK in 1994. Subsequently, he was awarded a NATO fellowship for postdoctoral research with Prof. Paul Hansma at the University of California Santa Barbara. Further postdocs followed at the University of Nottingham (1998) and the EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland (1999), before he secured a 5-year Advanced Research Fellowship from the EPSRC, UK.
His expertise and leadership has been key to the founding of the Leeds AFM facility, which is now housed within high spec, ultra-low noise laboratories in the new interdisciplinary Bragg Centre for Materials Research. He was a co-founder of the SPM section of the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) and is an Editorial Board member of Nature Scientific Reports for Biological Physics.
His group develops and applies AFM imaging and force measurement to biological systems, biomaterials and nanostructures. Current research interests focus on DNA nanotechnology and the mechanobiology of collagen systems, both synthetic and natural. We aim to understand the structure and function of these biomolecular materials down to the molecular level with a view to development of new technologies and therapies for healthcare applications.
Dalia Yablon
Dalia Yablon is the founder of SurfaceChar, an AFM and nanoindentation company offering measurement, consulting, and training services in the Greater Boston area since 2013 after spending 11 years as a Member of Technical Staff at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering. In addition to editing a book on “SPM in Industrial Applications” (Wiley), Dalia’s research focuses on nanomechanical characterization methods/soft material characterization and recently has begun to explore machine learning methods for AFM. She also serves as Technical Program Chair of TechConnect World. Dalia holds an A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Columbia University.
Arvind Raman
Dr. Arvind Raman is the Robert V. Adams Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and the Executive Associate Dean of Purdue University’s College of Engineering. His research focuses on exploiting nonlinear dynamics for innovations in diverse interdisciplinary areas such as nanotechnology, biomechanics and appropriate technologies for sustainable development. His work on the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) has helped the scientific and industrial community recognize and exploit nonlinear effects to better and more rapidly image and measure properties of complex materials at the nanoscale. Via the cyberinfrastructure of nanohub the AFM simulation tools developed by Raman’s group have been used by thousands of researchers worldwide. He is the co-founder of the Shah Family Global Innovation Lab in the College of Engineering that supports technology development and translation of technologies for sustainable development and the PI of the $70M USAID funded LASER PULSE center that convenes and catalyzes a global network of Universities, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector for research-driven practical solutions to critical development challenges in Low- and Middle- Income Countries.
Raman is an ASME fellow, an ASME Gustus Larson Memorial Award recipient, Keeley fellow (Oxford), College of Engineering outstanding young investigator awardee, and a NSF CAREER awardee. Professor Raman joined Purdue University in 2000 as an Assistant Professor following a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley advised by Prof. C. D Mote Jr. (1999), MS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University (1993), and a B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (1991).
He currently serves as the Executive Associate Dean of the Faculty in the College of Engineering.