News and Announcements
Check in here for our latest news and announcements

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Hosts Tour for REU Site Program Participants
50 undergraduates who are participating REU Site program from Ohio State, The University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had a tour at the NSF’s ChemMatCARS. Dr. Wei Bu and Dr. Mati Meron of NSF’s ChemMatCARS introduced the synchrotron research at Sector 15.

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Hosts Tour for 2019 Neutron X-ray School Students
NSF’s ChemMatCARS beamline scientist Wei Bu introduced the synchrotron facility at sector 15 to the students from the 2019 Neutron X-ray School.

ChemMatCARS gives Tour of Synchrotron Facility
On June 25-26, 2019, NSF’s ChemMatCARS beamline scientist Wei Bu introduced the synchrotron facility at sector 15 to the students from the 2019 Neutron X-ray School.

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Hosts Tour for ANL’s 2019 Science Careers in Search of Women Conference
ANL hosted the annual Science Careers in Search of Women Conference (SCSW) and CARS was part of the tour. High-school girls from cross Chicago area came to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Dr. Mrinal Bera of NSF’s ChemMatCARS introduced the synchrotron research at Sector 15.

Teaching Outside of the Classroom: Field Trips in Crystallography Education for Chemistry Graduate Students 2019
Every year since 2014, NSF’s ChemMatCARS organizes a School for Synchrotron Crystallography outreach program for Advanced Crystallography entitled, “Teaching Outside of the Classroom: Field Trips in Crystallography Education for Chemistry Graduate Students”. This program is co-organized by Dr. Yu-Sheng Chen, Operations Manager for NSF’s ChemMatCARS, and Dr....

Dr. Mrinal Bera and Dr. SuYing Wang Participate as Judges in State Final Rube Goldberg Competition
Beamline scientists from NSF’s ChemMatCARS, Dr. Mrinal Bera and Dr. SuYin Grass Wang participated as judges in the state final for Rube Goldberg Competition hosted by Hoffman Estates High School.

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Hosts Tour for The University of Chicago Lab School Students
Suyin Wang and Mrinal Bera talk to University of Chicago Lab School advanced chemistry students about synchrotron research at NSF’s ChemMatCARS.

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Hosts Students from Hoffman Estates High School
Hoffman Estates HS students run their experiment at 15-ID. On Sunday, February 17, 2019, NSF’s ChemMatCARS hosted a team of six Hoffman Estates High School students participating the Exemplary Student Research Program (ESRP) at 15-ID X-ray beamline for a hands-on synchrotron experiment in materials research. The students spent 24 hours at the beamline carrying out...

NSF’s ChemMatCARS Staff Give Talks at Hoffman Estates High School
NSF’s ChemMatCARS scientific staff went Hoffman Estates High School in Hoffman Estates to visit the high school student-teacher team, 6 students and one teacher, who will participate 2019 ANL exceptional student research program (ESRP). This ESRP Team will perform an experiment at NSF’s ChemMatCARS beamline on February 17. To prepare the Team for their experiment, the staff, Binhua Lin, Yu-sheng Chen, Wei Bu and Mrinal Bera, gave introductory lectures on Synchrotron Radiation, X-ray Crystallography, Liquid Surface Scattering and Small Angle Scattering, and held a question-answer session during dinner arranged by the High School administration.

IME Researchers Receive $12 Million Grant for NSF’s ChemMatCARS from the National Science Foundation
NSF’s ChemMatCARS Team, May 2018. Front: Yu-Sheng Chen, Mark Schlossman, Binhua Lin, SuYin Grass Wang, Kimberly Simms, Ka Yee Lee. Back: Tieyan Chang, Mati Meron, Mrinal Bera, Jason Benedict, Wei Bu, Theodore Betley, Matthew TirrellMatthew Tirrell, dean of the Institute of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, Mark Schlossman of the University of...
Graduate Students from El Paso, Texas, and Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, Broaden Their Career Vision in X-ray Science
In July 2018, NSF’s ChemMatCARS hosted two graduate students under our Graduate Student Research Award at ChemMatCARS (GSRAC) program. Both took away a better sense of the opportunities and realities of x-ray science—and confirmation that they’re on the right path. Jesse Murillo of the University of Texas at El Paso performed single-crystal diffraction on samples...
Claflin University Professor and Undergrad Use Microcrystallography to Screen Candidate Materials for Nonlinear Optics
A chemistry professor and a student researcher from Claflin University have made the first link in bringing big science to a small city in South Carolina. Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jie Ling and junior biology major Dawanye Burgess visited NSF’s ChemMatCARS for an intensive visit in July 2018 to collect structural data on microcrystals of hybrid...
Faculty-student team from City College of New York investigates phenomena that could help improve efficiency of therapeutic proteins
Chemical engineering professor Raymond Tu and his Ph.D. student Ankit Deepak Kanthe arrived at NSF’s ChemMatCARS at the beginning of June 2018 as synchrotron neophytes. At the end of June, they left as well-initiated users with publishable data related to the effectiveness of advanced pharmaceuticals—and plans to come back. Kanthe is in his second year in the Ph.D....
2017 Faculty and Student Team Research Award at ChemMatCARS (FaSTRAC)
Left to right: Dr. Yu-Sheng Chen, Dr. Binhua Lin, Skye Fortier, and Jesse Murillo ChemMatCARS hosted Professor Skye Fortier and his student Jesse Murillo from the University of Texas at El Paso for the 2017 Faculty and Student Team Research Award at ChemMatCARS Program. The Fortier group is interested in molecular metal complexes with novel structures and electronic...
2017 Graduate Student Research Award at ChemMatCARS (GSRAC) Our second recipient this year: Travis Mitchell, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Travis Mitchell (far, back) assisting users with experiment Our second recipient of the GSRAC award for 2017 is Travis Mitchell, from University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. Travis was the very first recipient of the GSRAC award when ChemMatCARS launched the program in 2015. During his his four-week stay in the summer, Travis had the opportunity...
2017 Graduate Student Research Award at ChemMatCARS (GSRAC) Our first recipient this year: Daniel Amoanu, University of Illinois at Chicago
Daniel presenting his research to ChemMatCARS staff. ChemMatCARS launched its summer development program, GSRAC, May 8, 2017, aimed at exposing graduate students to the current synchrotron techniques and data analysis procedures performed at our facilities here at APS. Daniel is a Chemical Engineering PhD student from the University of Illinois at Chicago studying...
University of Chicago Lab Schools Tour at ChemMatCARS
On February 28, 2017, ChemMatCARS participated in hosting a tour for second- year chemistry students from the University of Chicago Lab Schools, along with BioCARS and GSECARS. Students were given a brief overview of APS, followed by an overview of CARS by Mark Rivers. After the introductions, students were separated into two groups and given brief presentations...
Congratulations to ChemMatCARS user, William Rock!
William Rock (left) pictured with Deputy Lab Director at ANL, Al Sattelberger (right) Congratulations to William Rock on being one of five, 1st place poster award winners selected at Argonne’s ninth annual Postdoctoral Research and Career Symposium. The event was held in Fall 2016, and displayed the scientific research of post doctorate scientists, engineers, and...
Symposium in honor of Professor Philip Coppens retirement
From the initial planning phases in 1994 to the approval of the final design in 1996, Professor Philip Coppens played a key role in the development of the crystallographic component of the ChemMatCARS beamline. He was the ideal candidate to lead the project, given his cutting-edge crystallographic research and his early advocacy of synchrotron-based techniques that...
2016 Faculty and Student Team Research Award at ChemMatCARS (FaSTRAC)
This year, ChemMatCARS conducted its first annual Faculty and Student Team Research Award at ChemMatCARS (FaSTRAC). This program creates research collaborations between ChemMatCARS and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs),...