Heising-Simons Faculty Fellows Program

A blood-based uterine receptivity assay for frozen human embryo transfers
Project Description: Maternal-fetal medicine often receives insufficient attention within the scientific community. Although numerous factors contribute to adverse clinical outcomes for both mothers and offspring, a key and solvable problem lies in the limited understanding of maternal biology and endocrinology. This project will identify biomarkers of sub-fertility and specifically endocrinological drivers of repeat implantation failure. Specifically, in light of the rapid decline in global human fertility, it is important to understand the mechanisms driving human reproduction, and declines thereof, as a function of age. Using proteomic mass spectrometry, and nanoparticles capable of detecting as-of-yet unknown drivers of implantation failure, this project will uncover potentially new biomarkers that are elevated or depleted as a function of fertility. In sum, this project seeks to advance maternal and fetal health outcomes for the increasingly prevalent problem of human infertility. 

Markita Landry is an Associate Professor in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed an NSF postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her current research centers on the development of synthetic nanoparticle-polymer conjugates for imaging neuromodulation in the brain, to study lipid nanoparticle-cell membrane interactions, and for the delivery of genetic materials into plants. 

Where did you come from, why did you go? Investigating magma storage and eruption triggering at very high threat volcanoes in the Cascade Arc, USA
Project Description: The Cascade Arc is comprised of a number of iconic stratovolcanoes and dispersed volcanic fields, stretching from Lassen Volcanic Center in northern California, through the high peaks of Oregon and Washington, into the ice-covered edifices of British Columbia. Ten US Cascade stratovolcanoes were classified as ‘very high threat’ in a 2017 National Threat Assessment; future eruptions have potential for loss of life, destruction of vital infrastructure, and disruption of air traffic. Despite the clear societal hazard these volcanoes pose, only a small number of Cascade volcanoes have been subject to extensive study. This proposal will target the highest threat, most neglected volcanoes. Different eruptions at a single volcano often show remarkable similarities to one another, despite spanning many millenia. By studying numerous past eruptions at each volcano, we can gain great insights into what might happen during future activity, and what warning signs may precede these eruptions. In detail, we will measure the chemistry of erupted minerals, and tiny pockets of melt trapped within them, to determine the conditions in the magma chamber leading up to past eruptions. These measurements on natural samples will be compared to experiments conducted at varying pressures and temperatures. After determining the conditions of magma storage prior to eruption, and the amount of dissolved volatiles in the magma, we will run state of the art thermodynamic models tracking changes in pressure in the magma chamber to grain a better insight into what caused this magma to rise towards the surface causing an eruption. 

Penny Wieser is an Assistant Professor in Earth and Planetary Science. She is originally from the UK, and received her BA + MSci in Earth Science at the University of Oxford in 2017, where she investigated geochemical trends along the Andean Arc. She got her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2021, studying eruptive behavior at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii from 1790 AD to 2018 AD. She then undertook an 18-month postdoc at Oregon State studying the volcanoes of the Cascade Arc prior to joining Berkeley in July 2022. Her work investigates the inner workings of active volcanoes using erupted rocks, minerals and gases, combining chemical measurements using a variety of analytical techniques (mass spectrometery, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy) with open-source modelling approaches. 

Manipulating Electron Transfer with Twisted Interfaces
Project Description: Controlling how electrons are transported across interfaces is fundamental to both energy conversion and information storage. These interfacial electron transfer processes are notoriously inefficient, losing considerable amounts of energy to thermal dissipation. Bediako aims to tackle this problem by designing and fabricating materials that allow interfacial electron transfer processes to be finely tailored, efficiently directing electrons to drive useful chemical reactions at surfaces or to create new electronic states that encode information with minimal energy input. His overarching approach involves taking atomically thin crystals (so-called “two-dimensional” materials) and assembling them into multilayer bespoke architectures in which all aspects of the new heterostructure—even subtle twists between layers—are controlled to define the electronic makeup of the material and its interfacial/surface chemical reactivity. Bediako’s work, which combines materials synthesis, nanofabrication, electronic transport, and electrochemistry, will develop the fundamental knowledge needed to open new avenues for ultra-efficient electrochemical energy conversion and electronic devices.

Kwabena Bediako is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. He received his B.S. from Calvin College in 2008, M.S. from MIT in 2013, and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 2015. He then performed postdoctoral research in the Department of Physics at Harvard University until joining the faculty at UC Berkeley in 2018. His research program lies at the interface of chemistry and physics, seeking to control the physics of solids and interfaces and leverage that insight to direct interfacial chemical reactivity, as well as to develop new materials synthesis and characterization methods that enable the realization, understanding, and control of exotic physics in solids.

A First-of-its-kind Paleohygrometer: 17O as a Proxy for Past Relative Humidity in Fossil Wood
Project Description: Relative humidity is a key climate variable that controls local landscape form (e.g., desert vs. tropical). We currently have limited ways to reconstruct relative humidity in the geological past. Stolper proposes here to create a novel geochemical proxy for the reconstruction of past relative humidity (i.e., a ‘paleohygrometer’). It is based on the observation that when leaves photosynthesize, water evaporates from the leaf to the atmosphere. This evaporation leaves a telltale signature in the stable triple oxygen isotopic composition of the remaining water ( 16 O, 17 O, and 18 O; note 17 O and 18 O were both originally discovered at Berkeley). Although plant water is not preserved in the geologic record, sugars biosynthesized in leaves that go on to form cellulose (a key component of wood) do preserve this isotopic signature. Stolper proposes to develop a new method to reconstruct the triple oxygen isotopic composition of ancient leaf water using cellulose as a proxy. He will develop the methodology, calibrate it, and then use it to reconstruct relative humidity in the geologic past during times of both colder and warmer climate states.

Daniel Stolper is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Science and a faculty scientist in the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his A.B. from Harvard, Ph.D. from Caltech, and was a postdoc at Princeton prior to coming to Berkeley in 2017. His work focuses on the measurement of the stable isotopic composition of environmental and experimental materials to reconstruct past climate and the cycling of carbon and oxygen. He has a particular interest in developing new geochemical methodologies to answer questions in Earth science.

Symmetry Breaking: a Path to Engineer Strongly Correlated Phases in Quantum Materials
Project Description: The distinguishing characteristic of strongly correlated phases of matter is that the behavior of their constituent electrons can no longer be described by a model of independent non-interaction particles reminiscent of the atoms or molecules in a gas. Some of the most exciting quantum phenomena in strongly correlated phases emerge when pairs or subsets of electrons behave like a coherent swarm bound by subtle attractive interactions. Rather than relying on scarce and preciously rare intrinsic materials properties, Fischer advances a rational design and modern bottom-up manufacturing technique that imbues otherwise unremarkable materials with just the right electronic structure that gives rise to electron-electron correlation. Besides expanding our understanding of fundamental principles, access to custom tailored 1D quantum phases guides the path to transformative advancements that could become the basis for stronger, yet more compact magnets, new schemes for low-power, portable electronic devices, quantum sensors, accelerated data processing systems, and more efficient energy generation, transduction, and conversion technologies.

Felix Fischer holds an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. He is a Faculty Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at LBNL, and a member of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute. He received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the Ruperto-Carola University, Heidelberg and earned his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. Before joining the faculty at UC Berkeley in 2011 Fischer held a position as Leopoldina Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University, New York.

Twisting the Photons
Project Description: The double helix of DNA molecules and vortexes in the interstellar medium are both examples of chiral structures. Such chiral structures lead to unique interactions with photons, which send us valuable information from either the microscopic world or deep space. Jie aims to develop “twist optics” by introducing the twist degree of freedom in photonic systems and explore the fundamental physics associated with the new topology. By combining novel material growth methods with advanced optical probes, Jie proposes to investigate the effects of chiral structures and moiré patterns of materials on the fundamental aspects of photons, such as their photonic density of states, tunable soliton modes and Cherenkov radiation. Such an approach not only offers novel forms of tunability and controllability of photons, but also adds a new dimension in the creation and detection of photons with different topologies. New understandings obtained in this emerging field will push the boundaries of our knowledge and enable applications in optical communications, astrophysics and quantum information science.

Jie Yao joined the faculty at UC Berkeley in 2013 and is now an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He received his B.S. from Nanjing University. After getting a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University. His major research interest is in the fundamental understanding of the interactions between light and matter and the application of those principles to guide the design of novel optical materials and artificial photonic structures such as metamaterials and photonic crystals. He is particularly interested in exploring dimensionality and new degrees of freedom of materials to better control the generation, propagation and detection of photons.

Using Spintronics to Understand and Control High-Temperature Superconductivity
Project Description: In high-Tc superconductors it is thought that the origin of superconductivity is connected to the emergence of spinful objects known as paramagnons. These objects are inseparable from the electrons that form the superconducting condensate itself, and in many ways this is what has made question of the origin of high Tc such an intractable problem. James Analytis suggests a way to find smoking-gun evidence for this mechanism by leveraging techniques that have emerged in the field of spintronics. Along the way he answers two connected questions, both at the forefront of condensed matter research, both with potentially transformative technological impact. (i) How does spin become fractionalized from its charge, and how do we measure the emergent quantum numbers that correctly characterize this state? (ii) How do we leverage this knowledge in order to drive new superconducting states, and if possible increase the transition temperature?

James Analytis joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in January 2013 as the Charles Kittel Chair in condensed matter physics. He received his B.Sc. in physics from Canterbury University in 2001 and his D. Phil. from the University of Oxford. He primarily studies the physics of unconventional superconductors and their relationship to quantum critical points, as well as spin liquids and frustrated magnets.

Single-Molecule Electrophoresis Microscopy
Project Description: Driven far away from equilibrium, the local physicochemical parameters inside a cell vary greatly over short length scales, thus dictating cell functions at a fundamental level. Ke's research aims to unveil the hidden order and physical rules that govern the dynamic interactions between (bio)molecules inside the cell with ultimate sensitivity, spatiotemporal resolution, and functionality. He proposes the creation and application of new microscopy-spectroscopy tools that will uniquely enable the direct visualization and quantification of biomolecule charge states and interactions both in vitro and in living cells at the single-molecule and super-resolution levels. Towards this goal, he is integrating single-molecule spectroscopy, micro/nano-fabrication, and electrokinetics to manipulate and quantify the transient motions of millions of unbound single molecules under the external stimulus. By thus enabling the sub-diffraction-limit spatiotemporal mapping of biomolecule states and interactions, this work will open a new door toward understanding the physical rules that underlie the complex behavior of the cell.

Ke Xu is an associate professor of Chemistry. He received his B.S. from Tsinghua University and Ph.D. from Caltech, and performed postdoctoral research at Harvard University before joining UC Berkeley in 2013. His current research develops new physicochemical tools to interrogate biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution, sensitivity, and functionality. To this end, his lab takes a multidimensional approach that integrates advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, nanotechnology, and cell biology. Ke has been named a Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering, a Sloan Research Fellow, a Beckman Young Investigator, a Pew Biomedical Scholar, and the C&EN Talented 12.