לוח שנה משולב

It's been exactly 10 years since the Higgs Boson Discovery (July 4th, 2012). The Higgs Boson discovery is the biggest achievement of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and one of the milestones of experimental Particle Physics. We will describe the road to the Higgs Boson discovery, its importance, and the status of the measurement of its properties since its discovery.

The second quantum revolution relies on our ability to control and measure individual quantum states in micro- and nanoscopic systems, such as atoms, ions, and quantum dots. The techniques resulting from this capability may lead to a considerable improvement in several sensing modalities, for example atomic clocks and the measurement of magnetic fields on the nanoscale.
As an example for a quantum sensor, and of course after introducing the underlying concepts of quantum sensing, I will present the nitrogen-vacancy defect, or color center, in diamond. First, I will explain how one can use it to measure magnetic and electric fields, temperature, strain and even pH levels. Then, I will try to show what the "quantum advantage" that is possible in this class of sensors and will give a few examples from research activities in our group. Finally, I will also discuss several industrial applications, some of which are already in use or in development around the world.

Early detection of recurrence and monitoring of Molecular Residual Disease (MRD) post-surgery is critical for clinical decision-making to tailor personalized treatments across solid cancers. C2i Genomics has developed an ultra-sensitive whole-genome ctDNA test, allowing extremely accurate and sensitive monitoring of patients with solid tumors. Here we present results from applying whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and identification of ctDNA across a variety of adult and pediatric solid tumors. We integrate a genome-wide mutation and copy number monitoring approach coupled with advanced signal processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for measuring the tumor load from low-input blood samples (~1mL of plasma) with ultra-sensitive detection. The increased sensitivity allowed clinical detection of tumor fraction down to 5*10-5 and recurrence detection sensitivity achieving >65% at the first two months after definitive treatment, enabling earlier clinical intervention for high-risk patients.

Functional materials are the main building blocks of advanced technologies based on energy storage and conversion systems essential for our modern life including batteries, solar cells, and heterogeneous catalysis. Improvements in materials performance and development of new materials rely on our ability to obtain structure-function correlation as well as understand degradation processes when the materials are integrated into a device. To this end, advanced analytical tools that can provide information at the atomic level are essential. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy is well suited for this task, especially when equipped with high sensitivity by Magic Angle Spinning - Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (MAS-DNP). However, to date, the majority of materials studied by MAS-DNP were non-reactive and non-conductive materials with DNP from exogenous sources of polarization such as nitroxide radicals. This approach cannot be simply extended to functional materials as the properties that stem from the material’s functionality in the device, including electrical conductivity, chemical reactivity and defects, often pose challenges in the study of the materials by DNP.
In this talk I will frame the challenges associated with the application of MAS-DNP to functional materials and describe approaches to address them. Results will be presented from three ubiquitous material systems spanning a range of applications: carbon allotropes, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and metallic microstructures. We systematically investigated the deleterious effect of materials’ conductivity and formulated means to reduce the effect. We explored the feasibility of utilizing inherent unpaired electrons for endogenous DNP and applied it to probe buried phases in all-solid-state lithium-metal battery and the surface chemistry in carbons. I will show that wealth of information achieved by DNP on various functional materials, can place DNP-NMR as a preferable tool for materials scientists. Our findings are expected to apply to many other systems where functional materials are dominant, making DNP a more general technique.