Molecular Foundry

Join us today, October 27 at 11 AM PT for our seminar with Dr. Sandya Susarla of Arizona State University on watching quasiparticles by electron microscopy, with implications for quantum sensors and low-power electronics. Free and open to the public, in person or via Zoom. #nanoscience #quantum

6th place in NanoArt goes to Yi-Ru Liu for a machine-learning visualization that maps materials data like a city! Learn more: https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

5th place in NanoArt goes to Ryan Evanson & team for this structured X-ray light pattern! Learn more: https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

4th place in NanoArt goes to Preetika Rastogi for "The Water Dancer," showing nanoparticle assembly! Learn more: https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #Scienceasart #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

3rd place in NanoArt goes to Wiebke Koepp & team! A parameter glitch turned X-ray scattering data into art. https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #scienceasart #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

2nd place in our NanoArt contest goes to Lory Marchand for micro-mountains of indium phosphide for photonic lasers! https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #ScienceAsArt #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

1st place in our NanoArt contest goes to Diyi (Dylan) Cheng for "Golden Antler Deer," a TEM image taken during liquid cell experiments! Learn more: https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #nanoscience #ScienceasArt #FoundryFriday #Foundryat20 @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Join us Tuesday, October 27 at 11 AM PT for our seminar with Dr. Sandya Susarla of Arizona State University to discuss how electron microscopy lets us watch quasiparticles like excitons and ferrons, which could one day enable quantum sensors and low-power electronics. In person or via Zoom.

Where science meets art! 🎨🔬 Watch the countdown through the top 6 in our 2026 NanoArt Competition! See all winners & the science behind them: https://bit.ly/3VZt1S6 #scienceasart #nanoscience @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Join us today at 11 AM PT for our seminar with Dr. Megan Butala of the University of Florida to discuss atomic structure insights for advancing energy storage and electronic materials. Join in person or via Zoom.

What if better batteries start with a closer look at their atoms? We’re hosting Dr. Megan Butala of the University of Florida to discuss atomic structure insights for energy storage and electronic materials. Join us Tues., Oct. 20, at 11:00 AM PT, in person or via Zoom. Link in comments.

Join us today at 11 AM PT for our seminar with Berkeley Lab's Dr. Patrick Huck! to discuss AI-ready materials data, from bench to national platforms. https://bit.ly/4i9SwbV

Happy National Nano Day! 🔬 As we celebrate 10⁻⁹ meters of big science, we’re launching Season 5 of our Foundry Fireside podcast! Tune in for big insights into small science. 🎧 https://bit.ly/4j90y5Z cc @berkeleylab.lbl.govLab #nanoscience

Happy National Nanotechnology Day! 🔬 10/9 pays homage to $10^{-9}$ meters. We host researchers working at the smallest scales to make a big impact on technology, health, and society!#NationalNanoDay #nanoscience cc @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

What if instrument data was AI-ready from the moment it's collected? We're hosting Dr. Patrick Huck of @BerkeleyLab to discuss AI-ready materials data, from bench to national platforms. Join us Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 11:00 AM PT, in person or on Zoom.

Join us today at 11 AM PT for our seminar with Georgia Tech’s Dr. Rampi Ramprasad! Learn how physics, chemistry & AI converge for sustainable polymer design. https://bit.ly/4yz8yCd

Our Fall 2026 Seminar Series begins Oct 6! Join us hybrid, in person, or on Zoom, Tuesdays at 11 AM PT, for 7 great talks. Full line-up & links: https://bit.ly/4xTPRba

Happy National Postdoc Appreciation Week! 👏 We're celebrating our amazing postdocs with cake and treats today! 🍰 Thank you for driving innovative nanoscience & supporting our community! 🔬#NPAW2026

One week left! ⏰ Our Fall Proposal Call closes Sept 30. Submit a proposal to access our nanoscience facilities & work with our staff at no cost. Apply here: https://bit.ly/4ruUkzf

We are back from lunch and our second keynote by John Hartwig from @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social is about to start! He’s speaking on upcycling waste plastic into new catalysts! #MFAUM26

Now, our postdoc paper award winner, Feng Pan, now at @utahstate.bsky.social, is presenting his work on high-Q chiral metastases for controlling the spin of electrons and photons. Congrats on your award, Feng!

Rounding out our afternoon session is student paper award winner Kushiro Das, presenting on atomic-scale binary oxide films for energy efficient computing. Congrats Koushik! #MFAUM26

We are back from the morning break and now Boubacar Kante from @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social is talking about his work on developing scalable and classical semiconductor light sources. Lots of critical tech depends on light &light controlling materials! #MFAUM26

Next up, Annelise Barron from @stanfordpress.bsky.social is discussing her group’s work on antibacterial peptoids - sequence defined polymers that were originally invented by a Foundry researcher. One of their molecules has received an infectious disease product designation from the FDA! #MFAUM26

Closing out our morning session is Sung Sae Hong from @ucdavis.bsky.social, sharing his work on freestanding oxide membranes that can be used for efficient electronics and more! #MFAUM26

Berkeley Lab Director Kathy Yellick delivered remarks emphasizing the importance of cross disciplinary collaboration, the role of user facilities like the Foundry, and new investments being made that are going to bring the best science capabilities to the scientific community @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

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Next up, our first keynote speaker, Brandon Wood from Meta, is talking about his team’s work building a “universal model for atoms” - a single model that works out of the box for molecules, materials, and more without specialized fine tuning #MFAUM26

Brandon shared this link to the FAIR-Chemistry UMA ‘playground’ - a playground for interactive chemistry. A very cool resource for getting a visual understanding of chemical processes! #MFAUM26

Next, DOE program manager Mikhail Zhernenkov shared updates from the Office of Science, highlighting investments made for the Nanoscale Science Research Centers and to the Foundry in particular #MFAUM26

Foundry Director Ashfia Huq is providing an update on recent and upcoming research initiatives and capabilities. A lot of exciting things happening or coming soon! #MFAUM26

We are getting ready to start here at our Annual User Meeting! We have a great program that spans the breadth of nanoscale science. Follow along with #MFAUM26.

18 Aug

Last chance to join us for the Molecular Foundry Annual User Meeting (Aug 20–21)! Virtual registration closes tomorrow! https://usermeeting2026.foundry.lbl.gov/registration/ cc @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

16 July

July 20 is the deadline to register for our Annual User Meeting in Berkeley (hybrid options available)! Join us to hear keynotes from Brandon Wood (Meta) & John Hartwig (UC Berkeley). Register: https://usermeeting2026.foundry.lbl.gov/ cc @berkeleylab.lbl.gov #nanoscience #MFAUM26 #Foundryat20

29 June

Our 2026 User Meeting (Aug 20–21) afternoon sessions: bio-inspired critical materials recovery, core-level spectroscopy (PICKLES), superconducting qubit materials & an AI agents workshop with hands-on DFT tutorial 🤖🧲 Register: usermeeting2026.foundry.lbl.gov #nanoscience #MFAUM26

28 June

Our 2026 User Meeting (Aug 20–21) morning sessions cover critical metals, soft matter, photonic quantum tech & an MBXAS workshop — hands-on X-ray spectroscopy simulation developed at the Foundry! 🔬⚛️ Register: usermeeting2026.foundry.lbl.gov #nanoscience #MFAUM26

18 June

We're excited to have Fuzhong Zhang from Wash U in St. Louis for our next seminar! Dr. Zhang will discuss how synthetic biology can be harnessed to create high-performance protein-based materials. Tues., Jun 23 at 11:00 AM PT. zoom link: https://bit.ly/4ummTPt

12 June

#FoundryFriday The World Cup kicks off this week — and nature's been making soccer balls for billions of years. Bacterial protein shells use the same geometry, and our users can now build them outside living cells in under an hour. ⚽🔬 #Foundryat20 #nanoscience #WorldCup2026 https://bit.ly/49YgmTI

12 June

Join us for a seminar with William Borders of NIST! His talk "CMOS-Integrated Novel Device Technologies for Next-Gen Computing" explores hardware that could power the next generation of AI, using novel devices like stochastic magnetic tunnel junctions. Tues., Jun 16 at 11:00 AM PT. Link in bio.

5 June

We're hosting Dr. Jie Xu @argonnenationallab/ @uchicago for a joint seminar with the Advanced Light Source on her self-driving laboratory, Polybot an AI-guided platform that autonomously designs, synthesizes, and characterizes advanced polymers.Tues., Jun 9 at 11:00 AM PT

1 June

31 May

29 May

Can we fabricate at the atomic scale & make it practical? Find out at our next seminar with Tito Busani from UNM, whose lab pushes the boundaries of nanolithography using GaN nanowire probes to achieve sub-7 nm resolution patterning for photonics and quantum technologies. Tues., Jun 2 at 11:00 AM PT

21 May

Can we build the ultimate water electrolyzer? Find out at our next seminar with Shannon Boettcher from UC Berkeley, whose lab designs materials and devices for clean hydrogen production, CO₂ capture, and electrochemical energy conversion. Tues., May 26 at 11:00 AM PT #CO2capture In person or Zoom.

15 May

✨ #FoundryFriday — on the eve of the International Day of Light, explore 20 years of luminescent nanoparticle science at the Molecular Foundry. From single-protein imaging to avalanching nanoparticles. 🌟 #Foundryat20 #nanoscience 🔗 https://bit.ly/42q5Bp0

14 May

Can a 2D material power quantum technologies? Dr. Sanjay Behura (SDSU) joins us to explore spin defects in hexagonal boron nitride for quantum sensing & communication. Tues. May 19th 11 AM PT In person & Zoom. #nanoscience #BerkeleyLab https://bit.ly/4euhcut

13 May

⏰ Abstract deadline: May 15! Molecular Foundry users — submit your abstract for a contributed talk at our Annual User Meeting. Each symposium includes at least 2 contributed talks, and unselected abstracts are invited to the poster session: https://bit.ly/4nqRaut #nanoscience

9 May

8 May

#FoundryFriday In 2012, Natron Energy founder Colin Wessells came to the Molecular Foundry with fundamental questions about his Prussian blue battery chemistry. Now his company has 250 employees and a gigawatt-scale factory. Check out the full Q&A with Colin: https://bit.ly/4d4xgkg #Foundryat20

7 May

What if your microscope couldn't zoom in far enough? Dr. Steffi Woo (ORNL) uses electrons instead of light to reveal hidden nanoscale behavior in 2D semiconductors. Join us Mon., May 11 at 1 PM PT, In person or Zoom https://bit.ly/4uos7dW#nanoscience #2Dmaterials #electronmicroscopy #BerkeleyLab