The Speakers

Professor William Graves joined the Arizona State University ("ASU") Physics Department and the Center for Applied Structural Discovery in the Biodesign Institute in 2015. He came to ASU from MIT, where he spent over a decade developing novel x-ray light sources that ranged in size from tabletop scale to the largest mile-long devices using giant particle accelerators at national labs. His interests are focused on a new type of x-ray light source based on the collision of extremely short electron and laser pulses. The relativistic electrons convert the laser photons into an intense x-ray beam similar to the beams produced by the very large accelerators at national labs, but the new source is much smaller, and will fit in any medical, scientific, or industrial lab.

Dr. Dera is a Professor of Mineral Physics and Extreme Materials Science at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. He has been closely involved in the activities of high-pressure research community both within USA, as well as internationally. He chaired the International Union of Crystallography Commission on High Pressure (2008-2014) and served as member and vice-chair the Executive Committee of COMPRES, the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences (2010-2013). His main scientific interests include study of pressure-induced phase transitions and spin crossover phenomena in materials, with an emphasis on minerals relevant to planetary interiors.

Dr. Yamada is the CEO of Photon Production Laboratory ("PPL") and inventor of the world's first tabletop storage ring synchrotron MIRRORCLE. He founded PPL to further develop and promote MIRRORCLE to X-ray researchers worldwide. His background is in nuclear physics and for the last 30 years he was involved in the synchrotron light source science, free electron lasers and optics. He is a Professor Emeritus of Ritsumeikan university and was the director of the Synchrotron Light Life Science Center founded by the 21st century COE program by MEXT. He is also experienced in the X-ray and FIR beamline technologies.

Dr. Chen is an Associate Researcher in Mineral Physics and Experimental Petrology at Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. The focus of his research is to understand the physics and chemistry of Earth and planetary interiors through direct examination of material properties under high pressure-temperature conditions using a wide spectrum of techniques available in synchrotron and neutron facilities and in-house laboratories. Currently he is working on a project concerning the deep carbon cycle in the Earth’s interior with a focus on carbon in Earth’s core. His research takes a two-pronged approach: using the multi-anvil apparatus for sample syntheses and high pressure-temperature measurements on large volume samples and the diamond anvil cell for determination of elastic and acoustic properties, combining with laser, X-ray and microanalytical techniques.

Dr. Adibhatla is an Area Sales Manager for Excillum, the manufacturer of MetalJet X-ray Sources. She previously worked at Malvern Panalytical Inc. as an X-ray diffraction application specialist, and is trained as a materials scientist with experience in diffraction, computed tomography and pair distribution function.

Dr. Mykhaylyk is a Senior Research Fellow in the Chemistry Department at the University of Sheffield and Head of Soft Matter Analytical Laboratory. His research focuses on the structural analysis of soft matter materials and in particular polymers. He works on how information obtained by scattering methods (SAXS, WAXS, XRD, SANS and SLS) can be transformed into real space parameters, convenient for our understanding. This involves structural modelling, Monte-Carlo simulations and Fourier transformation techniques. An advantage of scattering methods is that they can be used for kinetic studies of materials in-situ in different environments. He is also involved in design of dedicated experimental set-ups for studying materials under external impact such as flow, temperature or pH changes.

Dr. Hauback is the Head of the Neutron Materials Characterization Department at the Institute for Energy Technology ("IET"). His research focuses on materials for storage of hydrogen, materials for ICT and energy applications, magnetic materials, nanoscience, crystallography and neutron and X-ray diffraction.

Dr. Pedersen is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Head of the Soft Condensed Matter team. He studies biological and synthetic protein samples, inorganic and synthetic polymers and DNA- and RNA- structures, mostly using solution scattering. The central topic of his research is to determine how molecules interact and self-assemble into higher order structures and provide an understanding of the mechanisms that lie behind. Knowledge that is used in directing self-assembly and designing systems with controlled response that can be used, e.g., in drug delivery systems.