SNSF grants for Alexander Barnes and Chih-Jen Shih
Alexander Barnes, Professor of Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy, and Chih-Jen Shih, Professor of Technical Chemistry, receive Consolidator Grants funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Alexander Barnes is Professor of Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy in the Institute of Molecular Physical Science at D-CHAB.
The chemist will use this Consolidator Grant to further develop high-field NMR. Together with his group, he plans to build an instrument that uses very strong magnetic fields and a phenomenon called microwave induced dynamic nuclear polarization to produce high-resolution images of the structure of molecules in their natural environment. To achieve this, the group will have to develop the world’s strongest and most compact magnets. The technology can be used, for example, to elucidate the structure of molecules in biological cells – which is central to the development of new drugs – or that of chemical catalysts.
Alexander Barnes is looking forward to the project: "I am very appreciative of the SNSF for funding this high-reward project. I don't think many countries would fund such risky, yet promising, research. We are making the world's most powerful magnets, but orders of magnitude smaller than anyone has before. Oberassistants, postdocs, and students in my group helped me prepare this proposal and are going to be the ones that carry-out the research, so I'd like to give a big shout-out to their amazing skills and tremendous efforts."
Chih-Jen Shih is Professor of Technical Chemistry in the Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering at D-CHAB.
"My group aims to explore new technological opportunities in integrated nanoscale sensing, imaging, spectroscopy, and on-chip communications. The acquisition of this grant will strengthen our leading position in the development of nanoscale light sources that can be directly integrated with silicon electronic circuits", Chih-Jen Shih explains.
Chih-Jen Shih has developed molecular-beam holographic lithography, which has been patented by ETH Zurich. Together with his team, he aims to use this technology to develop LEDs with a pixel size of less than 100 nanometres. This is 50 times smaller than is possible with existing organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The miniature LEDs can be used to build high-resolution displays, for example for near-eye applications such as eyeglasses. Other potential applications include biomedical imaging and microscopy, as well as high-resolution photolithography for semiconductor chip manufacturing. The new light sources are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This enables electroluminescent metamaterials to generate specially polarised light for optical data transmission.
"I am very proud of the achievement made by my research group and am very grateful for the strong support from my institute and department."
About the grants
These were the last SNSF Consolidator Grants to be awarded for the time being. The SNSF grants were an interim measure to compensate for the loss of prestigious ERC grants, which were suspended after negotiations on a framework agreement between Switzerland and the EU broke down in 2021. In March 2024, the EU and Switzerland resumed negotiations. The EU has introduced a transitional arrangement that allows researchers in Switzerland to take part in this year’s call for ERC 2024 Advanced Grants for established researchers, as well as ERC 2025 Starting, Consolidator and Synergy Grants. This access will be prolonged until the end of 2025 and extended to other ERC grants and other calls within Horizon Europe.
Read the official press release/news here and get more background information about the SNSF grant as well as the ERC Grant.