Congratulations to Zain for being accepted to the SACLA Research Support Program for Graduate Students at the prestigious linear accelerator in Hyogo, Japan. Zain will be in Japan for three months this Fall. We are very proud of her!!!

Isabelle joined the group part way through the spring semester. She is a freshman in the physics department also pursuing a degree in Russian. Her project will be to characterize the optimal parameters for high harmonic generation.

Our last group dinner with Ryan! Thank you for all your hard work and contributions to the group. You will be missed, and congratulations on the completion of your post doc!

This semester, we welcome three new members to our group!

Our new post doc, Rafaella Georgiou will use X-ray spectroscopy to probe the chemical speciation of paint materials that led to a revolution in the 15th century, namely the transition from tempera to oil painting in Italy that marked the beginning of the great period of Renaissance art and the creation of some of the most revered masterpieces of all time.

We also welcome two new graduate students, Sophie Vogelsang and Caleb Robinson. Sophie recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Chemistry and History of Art and completed her undergraduate thesis in Dr. Lauren Buchanan’s research group. Caleb graduated from Rice University in May 2022 with his Bachelor of Science in physics and a minor in mathematics. As a member of the Killian Research Group at Rice, he wrote his senior thesis on implementing a new source of 422 nm laser light used for imaging ultracold strontium plasmas.

With numbered nice days left in the year, our group took a trip out to Devil’s Lake State Park to see the Fall colors! There was lots of hiking, swimming, food, and most importantly laughs. More adventures to come for the Bergmann group!

Muneeza joined the group at during the Fall semester of 2022. She is a junior majoring in physics and astronomy.