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NSRRC, users’ meeting, Taiwan Photon Source, industrial application, Soft X-ray Tomography
The NSRRC 2022 Annual Users’ Meeting & Workshops Was Held from August 30 to September 1
2022/11/03
After a hiatus of more than 1 year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 NSRRC Users' Meeting and Workshops were held from August 30 to September 1, 2022. Co-hosted by the Chair of the User Executive Committee (UEC), Dr. Heng-Liang Wu (Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, Natl. Taiwan Univ.), and the NSRRC scientist, Dr. Orion Shih. Setting the record for the most participants during the recent years, 550 people including 32 speakers attended this year’s meeting. It also featured two workshops and one interest group meeting.
 
The first day began with opening remarks from the UEC Chair, followed by an overview of NSRRC's status and prospects by the newly-appointed Director Chia-Hung Hsu, as well as updates on recent progress within Light Source Division and Experimental Facility Division by Dr. Meng-Shu Yeh and Dr. Yu-Shan Huang. Later, President W. John Kao of Natl. Tsing Hua Univ. delivered the keynote speech titled "The Biomedical Technology Value Chain: The Present and Future Role of the Natl. Tsing Hua Univ." The first day ended with the town meeting that was given the opportunities for all users and the NSRRC staff to discuss current issues.
 
The first two days were packed with excitement. 11 outstanding users gave invited talks on their latest research. The NSRRC Run on the second morning gathered 164 runners of users and NSRRC colleagues. Later in the afternoon, the environmental science interest group meeting was held for the first time.
 
There were 298 poster presentations (including 139 posters signed up for the poster presentation competition and best popularity awards; 12 reached the finals of the oral presentation competition). The winners are listed below. An awards ceremony was held during the banquet. Prof. Yu-Lun Chueh (Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.) succeeded Dr. Wu as the UEC chair at the end of the banquet and concluded the users' meeting.
 
 Poster Award Category Winner Advisor Affiliation
Oral Presentation:
The Glory of Taiwan Award
Biological Science Hong Thuy Vy Nguyen   Che Alex Ma   Academia Sinica
Materials Science Sheng-Shong Wong Chung-Lin Wu Natl. Cheng Kung Univ.
Physics/Chemistry Ming-Xing Cheng Tsan-Yao Chen Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.
Poster Competition:
Award of Excellence
Biological Science Chiang, Wesley Tien Nien-Jen Hu Natl. Chung Hsing Univ.
Materials Science
Materials Science
Mahmoud Kamal Hussien Abdelamged Kuei-Hsien Chen Academia Sinica
Truc Ly Nguyen Ashish Atma Chainani Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.
Jan Sebastian Dominic Flores Rodriguez Cheng-Hao Chuang Tamkang Univ.
Physics/Chemistry Sung-Yu Tsai Wei-Tsung Chuang Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.


Two workshops were held on the third day. The events are summarized below:
 
Workshop I: Synchrotron for Cross-disciplinary Research in Biology
 
Synchrotron radiation light sources provide unique methods for biomedical studies. This workshop was organized by Dr. Meng-Chiao Ho (Academia Sinica) and Dr. Chun-Jung Chen (NSRRC), and domestic speakers were invited to present their experience in applying synchrotron to their researches.
 
This workshop started with Academician Ming-Daw Tsai (Academia Sinica) sharing his exciting discovery of photolyase-catalyzed bond breaking and DNA repair in real time by X-ray free electron laser. His team was able to “watch” single-electron photoreduction steps and DNA repair at atomic resolution, providing some new insights of enzymatic mechanism of photolyase. Subsequently, Prof. Chun-Hua Hsu (Natl. Taiwan Univ.) reported the role of macro domain in ADP-ribose signaling. Prof. Alex Ma (Academia Sinica) introduced the anti-viral lectin he found from Chinese herb. Using synchrotron X-ray, he solved the structures of the lectin and the antiviral mechanism by interacting with glycan. The last talk in the morning session was given by the beamline manager, Mr. Chung-Kuang Chou (NSRRC). He introduced the status of the newly opened “TPS 07A Micro-focus X-ray protein crystallography beamline” and helped the attendees to understand the beamline capability and how user-friendly this beamline is.
 
The afternoon session started with soft X-ray tomography (SXT). Dr. Hung-Lin Chen (Academia Sinica) shared his finding of a new role of intracellular glycan-galectin-3 aggregation to regulate endosomal signaling using SXT. Prof. Chuang-Rung Chang (Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.) applied SXT to visualize the mitochondrial network under stress conditions. His preliminary images of yeast mitochondria indicate that altering the balance of mitochondria dynamics is required for cell survival under environmental stress. Following SXT, the last three talks were related to X-ray scattering. Prof. Hsiao-Ching Yang (Fu Jen Catholic Univ.) applied medium angle X-ray/neutron scattering (SAXS/SANS) contrast variation technique and high-resolution molecular dynamics simulations to probe the water channel inside the enzymes. Prof. Shih-Che Su (Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.) combined SAXS, NMR and cryo-EM techniques to reveal micro and macro structures of chemokine CCL5. Dipeptide repeats (DPRs), including poly(GA), poly(GR), poly(GP), poly(PR), and poly(PA) are highly neurotoxic. Prof. Yun-Ru Chen (Academia Sinica) applied wide-angle SAXS to reveal that poly(GA) with 15 repeats forms flat, ribbon-type fibrils with a characteristic cross-β sheet structure. The workshop was closed before fruitful discussions among participants and NSRRC colleagues.
 
Workshop II: Advanced Applications of Synchrotron Characterizations on Novel Energy Materials and Low-dimensional Semiconductors
 
Synchrotron radiation-based X-ray techniques have significantly boosted the development of novel energy materials and low-dimensional semiconductors. This workshop was organized by Dr. Heng-Liang Wu (Natl. Taiwan Univ.), Dr. Yu-Lun Chueh (Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.) and Dr. Jan-Chi Yang (Natl. Cheng Kung Univ.). State-of-the-art synchrotron technology and the development of novel materials, including halide perovskites, quantum dots, graphene, and the transition metal dichalcogenide family for energy applications were demonstrated in this workshop.
 
First, Dr. Cheng-Maw Cheng (NSRRC) delivered the opening remark and introduced the interdisciplinary project in the NSRRC. The main purpose of this research is to establish the key technology and the R&D capabilities in many research fields such as biomedical and energy. Prof. Jeng-Kuei Chang (Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) demonstrated transition metal high-entropy oxides as an attractive class of anode materials in lithium-ion batteries. Also, the reaction mechanism of anode material was studied using in situ X-ray techniques in the NSRRC. Then, Prof. Di-Yan Wang (Tunghai Univ.) developed new earth-abundant layered structure 1T-molybdenum disulfide and iron pyrite-based materials as active catalysts for electrochemically nitrogen reduction reaction. Prof. Hsing-Yu Tuan (Natl. Tsing Hua Univ.) showed high-performance potassium ion battery anodes. Prof. Chun-Hong Kuo (Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) introduced the rational design for the nanoarchitectures. The development in nanoarchitectonic engineering along with temporal probing by different synchrotron X-ray techniques were discussed. These novel materials were studied using in situ X-ray techniques in details.
 
Two speakers were invited to talk about low-dimensional semiconductors. Prof. Jung-Chun Andrew Huang (Natl. Cheng Kung Univ.) introduced the development of 2D topological insulators including bismuthene/Bi2Se3. Prof. Yen-Lin Huang (Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) talked about the magnetoelectric switching mechanism in lanthanum-doped BiFeO3 thin films. In the last session, Prof. Chang-Yang Kuo (Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) introduced a new computational code which can analyze soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy at L-edge; and Prof. Chao-Yao Yang (Natl. Yang Ming Chiao Tung Univ.) showed an interesting spin-orbit torque ratchet involving the exchange spring effect in an IrMn/CoFeB bilayer device. In this workshop, users exchanged their experiences and suggestions for future research in cutting-edge science and industrial applications.
Group photo of the NSRRC 2022 Annual Users’ Meeting & Workshops.
Selected photos from (top row) an invited oral presentation, the users’ town meeting, Workshop II, (bottom row) poster session and the NSRRC Run.