Berkeley Lab Expert Interviews

In this audio interview, listen as Berkeley Lab’s Harshi Mukundan, a microbiologist in the Biosciences Area and Chemical and Biological Technologies Lead in the Lab’s Office of National and Homeland Security, discusses the importance of biosecurity research.

After decades of research and development, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography has recently reached the point of high-volume semiconductor manufacturing, marking a significant technological breakthrough. Berkeley Lab’s Center for X-ray Optics (CXRO) has played an instrumental role in this achievement, working directly with chipmakers to develop tools to overcome longstanding challenges in EUV resist performance and mask defects. As EUV lithography advances to its next generation, CXRO – in close collaboration with the Advanced Light Source and the Center for High Precision Patterning Science (CHiPPS) – continues to address ongoing obstacles in optics, masks, and materials, enabling the creation of even smaller semiconductor features for future electronics.

Featuring: Bruno La Fontaine, director of the Center for X-Ray Optics (CXRO). He and his team develop unique research tools and perform scientific experiments that help the semiconductor industry make faster, smaller, and more efficient microchips. 

The Advanced Light Source is home to many techniques that can reveal atomic details of molecules and materials. The Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) leads a subset of these capabilities that are focused on elucidating the structure of biological molecules. For 25 years, pharmaceutical companies from across the nation have been collaborating with BCSB experts to study proteins related to disease. By unlocking the structures, our scientists have helped unlock treatments for a variety of conditions, including cancers and HIV. Listen to this podcast to learn more about the impact of our structural biology resources. 

Featuring: 

Marc Allaire, a biophysicist staff scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division and head of the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). His team uses light generated by the ALS to perform a range of structural characterization techniques. Allaire personally leads investigations using X-ray crystallography, and previously also managed small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies at Brookhaven National Laboratory. 

Allaire frequently collaborates with the BCSB’s large pharmaceutical user base to help enable drug discovery. In addition to the sheer quantity and diversity of structures being solved, he enjoys the challenge of working on new ways to improve crystallography technology. Notably, he helped incorporate robotics that automate sample processing at the ALS, leading to faster results and more convenient access for users.

Batteries power everything from the phone in your pocket to grid-scale energy storage, and their technology has advanced dramatically over the years. Developing reliable and efficient energy materials is crucial to this progress. For the past 30 years, the Advanced Light Source has played a key role in revolutionizing battery and energy materials research, enabling breakthroughs that drive innovation.

In this episode, we talk with Ethan Crumlin, a staff scientist and program lead specializing in battery chemistry and characterization. His work supports the development of reliable and efficient energy materials. We explore the history of the Advanced Light Source in advancing characterization techniques and discuss the groundbreaking capabilities that will drive research after the ALS upgrade.

Featuring: 

Ethan Crumlin, the Division Deputy for Science in the chemical sciences division and a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source. Crumlin leads a program that studies energy storage and conversion materials such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, catalysts, and batteries using advanced techniques. 

Scientists are using light at X-ray wavelengths to reveal the secret worlds of atoms and electrons. The Advanced Light Source is a U.S. Department of Energy scientific user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The ALS mission is to advance science for the benefit of society by providing world-class synchrotron light source capabilities and expertise to a broad scientific community.

Featuring: 

Dimitri Argyriou serves as interim director of the Advanced Light Source Upgrade project, responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of this transformative upgrade to endow the facility with revolutionary X-ray capabilities that will advance scientific innovation across materials science, chemistry, biology, and environmental science.

The integration of high-performance computing and AI is accelerating scientific discovery, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is at the forefront of innovation. With over 11,000 users from various scientific fields, NERSC has expanded its mission to include data analysis and is now receiving more data than it processes. Aiming to maintain U.S. leadership in high-performance computing, NERSC emphasizes team science and industry collaboration. Listen to this podcast where we talk about how NERSC supports scientific innovation, and learn more by visiting our news center.

Featuring: 

Sudip Dosanjh, Director of NERSC. NERSC’s mission is to accelerate scientific discovery at the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science through high-performance computing and extreme data analysis.

The Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU) is helping catalyze a new era of manufacturing: using biology to produce innovative materials, fuels, foods, and more. The ABPDU provides the technical resources, equipment, and expertise needed to take bench-scale discoveries all the way to market readiness. Listen to this podcast to learn more about the ABPDU’s collaborations across industry and academia. 

Featuring: 

Deepti Tanjore, director of the ABPDU and head of the Process Engineering & Analytics department. Her research investigates how bioprocess conditions affect the health and efficiency of microbes inside bioreactors. Tanjore’s team is developing modeling methods to predict ideal conditions for different species, as well as integrated sensing tools for real-time monitoring of cultures, allowing researchers to adapt bioreactor parameters as needed.

Bruno La Fontaine, Director of the Center for X-ray Optics (CXRO), speaks on how the CXRO supports the microchip industry.  

Biomanufacturing sounds complicated, but in a simple explanation, it is using biology and biological systems to perform certain operations in the manufacturing process. The goal is to produce goods and products that can be sold in the marketplace. Listen in this episode as Blake Simmons, Division Director of Biological Systems and Engineering in the Biosciences Area of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, describes how biomanufacturing supports the U.S. goal of increased domestic production. 

Featuring: 

Blake Simmons, is the Division Director of Biological Systems and Engineering in the Biosciences Area of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

In addition, Simmons serves as the Chief Scientific and Technology Officer and Vice President of the Deconstruction Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute. For the past 15 years, Simmons has been part of the Senior Management team at Sandia National Laboratories, most recently serving as the Senior Manager of Advanced Biomanufacturing, Biomass Program Manager. His expertise includes biofuels, renewable chemicals, biomanufacturing, abiotic-biotic interfaces, biomass pretreatment, enzyme engineering, biofuel cells, templated nanomaterials, microfluidics, desalination, and biomineralization.