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Contact name: Meg Dickinson
Contact email: megd@illinois.edu

Join the Beckman community in giving blood at ImpactLife Donor Center. Schedule in advance (using code #71263) and receive a voucher for a 20-can cooler or a $10 gift card. Appointments are required and you must sign in at the front desk upon arrival. Please eat before donating and bring a photo ID.

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Contact name: Laura Thurlwell
Contact email: thurlwel@illinois.edu

Title: "Beyond nice pictures: high-resolution molecular imaging as a tool to characterize the microstructure of conjugated polymers."

In this talk, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is capable of delivering crucial information that cannot be achieved by other current analytical methods about “real world” electronic and energy materials. Specifically, he will show that by combining vacuum electrospray deposition (ESD) and high-resolution STM, it is possible to image conjugated polymers used in organic (bio)electronics and photovoltaic devices with unprecedented details.

Based on this, it becomes possible to sequence the polymers by visual inspection and to determine their molecular mass distribution by simply counting the repeat units. He will further show that we can precisely establish the nature and frequency of synthetic defects in the polymer backbone and determine the polymer assembly motifs with sub-molecular spatial resolution. By benchmarking the results of ESD-STM against NMR, XRD, and mass spectrometry, Dr. Costantini will demonstrate that his new technique successfully reproduces and extends the analytical power of traditional characterization methods.

Contact name: Lexie Kesler
Contact email: lkesler@illinois.edu

The Beckman Institute Open House is scheduled for 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, March 31 and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 1. 

Community members of all ages are invited to do interactive demos and activities, solve the science scavenger hunt, and learn about the institute’s diverse research portfolio, which includes human health and medical imaging; clean energy and green plastics; and even artificial intelligence and insect-inspired robots. 

Guests can travel to locations throughout the building to:

Take a selfie with the first-ever human MRI scanner.

Learn how advanced medical imaging transforms cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Tour an inclusive maker space where assistive technologies are developed by and for athletes with disabilities.

Construct molecules from scratch with the Digital Molecule Maker.

Engage with molecules like DNA in virtual reality.

Each experience brings guests one step closer to solving the science scavenger hunt, which can be completed by downloading the Beckman app or with a pen-and-paper kit that visitors will receive upon their arrival.

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Contact name: Benjamin Nussbaum
Contact email: bn9@illinois.edu

Title: "

Spectral-multiplexed entangled photon pairs for quantum information science."

Entanglement, the correlations displayed between sub-systems of a multipartite quantum system, is one of the most distinctive properties of quantum physics and a significant resource for quantum information science and technology. Entanglement swapping is a protocol that enables the entanglement of quantum systems that have never interacted. This protocol underpins efforts to realize large-scale quantum networks as the core element of quantum repeaters. Entanglement swapping between entangled photons has been experimentally demonstrated using photons entangled in their polarization, spatial, and temporal degrees of freedom. Here, Dr. Smith focuses on encoding information in the spectral-temporal mode of single photons. This allows for a multiplexed approach to entanglement swapping that can generate many different entangled two-photon states. The entanglement swapping protocol relies on multimode entangled photon-pair sources and the ability to perform spectrally-resolved single-photon detection. Experimental results demonstrating the generation of 5 nearly-orthogonal two-photon states are presented and he outlines future applications that utilize such spectral and temporal multiplexing.

Contact name: Chaimongkol Saengow
Contact email: saengow@illinois.edu

Two graduate students will present their research at the fourth Beckman Graduate Student Seminar of the spring 2023 semester: Zhengchang Kou, electrical and computer engineering; and Zepeng Wang, bioengineering.

The event takes place Wednesday, Apr. 5 at noon in 1005 Beckman Institute and on Zoom. Register in advance to attend in person or on Zoom.

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Contact name: Leslie Sherman
Contact email: leslies@illinois.edu

Access Illinois is a hybrid event celebrating accessibility and inclusion at the University of Illinois. An optional lunch will be provided to in-person attendees. 

Keynote Speaker: Nizam Arain, Associate Vice Chancellor for Access and Equity, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

 

Contact name: Lexie Kesler
Contact email: lkesler@illinois.edu

Come find out more about the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology! Learn about the barrier-busting interdisciplinary research facility and community of innovation. Tours will be offered the first Thursday of the month from 10-10:30 a.m.

Contact name: Elahe Ganji
Contact email: elaganji@illinois.edu

The Inclusive Lab Leaders is a program to help those in STEM and beyond develop the skills and strategies to effectively communicate with mentors, students, and peers. This program offers a justice-oriented approach to learning how to navigate issues of power and conflict, through a mix of preventive strategies and just-in-time approaches. Racism, sexism, and more are continuing challenges rather than relics of the past, and ILL is designed to give you the introductory tools to become more aware of how they show up in science, and how you can imagine and implement a more just future. 

Session 3: Recognizing and navigating power dynamics in research. Friday, April 7

th

from 9-11am. 

Facilitators: Katy Heath and Kate Clancy

This session will address the different types of power and how they can manifest in a research team, from positional power by way of one’s academic rank, to systemic power from one’s identity groups, gender, race, and/or ethnicity. All members of a lab need to recognize the situations where they have coercive power and protect others from it; conversely nearly everyone also experiences low power moments where they need to protect themselves or solicit help.

During this session you will learn to:

Own the power you do have, and take responsibility for it.

Practice navigating challenging conversations with people who have power over you.

Seek solidarity when addressing more intractable power imbalances.

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu

Joseph DeSimone, a professor at Standford University and Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, will present "Light, materials, and interfaces: The complex dance that allows CLIP-based 3D printing." For more information, visit 

https://desimonegroup.stanford.edu/.

The production of polymer products relies largely on age-old molding techniques. A major reason for this is that additive methods have not delivered meaningful alternatives to traditional processes—until now. In this talk, I will describe Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology, which embodies a convergence of advances in software, hardware, and materials to bring the digital revolution to polymer additive manufacturing. CLIP uses software-controlled chemistry to produce commercial quality parts rapidly and at scale by capitalizing on the principle of oxygen-inhibited photopolymerization to generate a continual liquid interface of uncured resin between a forming part and a printer’s exposure window. Instead of printing layer-by-layer, this allows layerless parts to ‘grow’ from a pool of resin, formed by light. Compatible with a wide range of polymers, CLIP opens major opportunities for innovative products across diverse industries. Previously unmakeable products are already manufactured at scale with CLIP, including the large-scale production of running shoes by Adidas (Futurecraft 4D); masscustomized football helmets by Riddell; the world’s first FDA-approved 3D printed dentures; and numerous parts in automotive, consumer electronics, and medicine. At Stanford, we are pursuing new advances including digital therapeutic devices in pediatric medicine, new multi-materials printing approaches, recyclable materials, and the design of a high-resolution printer to advance technologies in the microelectronics and drug/vaccine delivery areas, including novel microneedle designs as a potent vaccine delivery platform.

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Contact name: Marni Boppart
Contact email: mboppart@illinois.edu

Extracellular vesicles represent an important mechanism for cellular communication, yet our understanding of the biosynthesis, detection, and delivery of EVs is just starting to emerge. The 

mission

of the Beckman Institute EVIT Working Group is to bring together our university community focused on the investigation of EVs in the context of both disease and health. Our 

goal

 

is to introduce 

innovation

into the traditional workflow of isolating and characterizing EVs, which requires synergistic efforts from faculty in multiple disciplines.

This workshop will provide the opportunity to learn more about EVs while becoming acquainted with innovative research currently underway at UIUC. The poster session will provide an informal venue for exploring collaborative efforts with colleagues. All faculty, staff, postdoctoral students, and graduate students are welcome to join us for this half-day workshop.

See the registration form for full agenda and speaker bios. Registration deadline is April 14.

Contact name: Stacy Olson
Contact email: srolson@illinois.edu
Contact phone: 217-244-8373

Join Director Nadya Mason and your colleagues this fall for informal conversation and coffee in the Beckman atrium.

This Gather in the Atrium Series will be from 10-10:30 a.m. every Tuesday through the spring semester. When the nice weather returns in the coming months, we will move these coffee sessions outside to the Beckman west garden.

Contact name: Elena Romanova
Contact email: romanova@illinois.edu

Join us at noon on Wednesdays this spring for restorative yoga with a view! All sessions are free and will be held in Beckman's fifth-floor tower room. All are welcome bring your own mat! 

Join Beckman Director Nadya Mason and other members of the Beckman community for coffee and cookies in the Beckman Atrium.