PSI FELLOW Program

As the Fellow program nears its end for many of the 32 PSI-FELLOW postdocs from the second call (2022), a farewell is on the horizon. To mark the occasion, a delightful dinner was held on Thursday, April 3 in Baden. The Management Unit extends its warmest wishes for a bright and rewarding future to all those who are departing or have already moved on.

The program managment unit is proud to announce that Viktoria Hinger won a SNFS Ambizione grant. The grant will start beginning of next year, 2025. She is hosted by the group of Dr. A. Bergamaschi, Detector Science and characterization, “X-ray Nanoscience and Technologies” lab (LXN), Center for Photon Science.

Title of her project: 
High-performance soft x-ray detectors for next generation light sources

Abstract:
Soft X-ray photon science at Free-Electron Laser (FEL) and synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities is an essential tool in fields ranging from quantum materials to photochemistry and catalysis. Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS), for instance, is a powerful technique that provides detailed insights into the electronic structure of materials. However, as X-ray sources are becoming more powerful, the available area, spatial resolution, and image rate of current detectors for soft X-rays—mainly CCD cameras and CMOS image sensors—are limiting for many experimental techniques such as RIXS. This project aims to address these limitations by developing soft X-ray detectors based on silicon hybrid pixel detector (HPD) technology. HPDs offer flexibility in size and pixel geometries, enabling large-area detectors with tunable position resolution. Their readout chips achieve multi-kilohertz image rates, constituting a thousandfold increase compared to typical low-noise CCD cameras. The focus of the project is on developing a fast, high-resolution HPD for RIXS. The project will combine charge-integrating readout chips with Inverse Low-Gain Avalanche Diode (iLGAD) sensors optimized for soft X-ray detection. These sensors provide intrinsic signal multiplication that allows to discriminate soft X-ray signals from the electronic noise of the detector. The project will focus on two main goals: improving spatial resolution and reducing noise. The first goal involves optimizing pixel geometry, developing efficient and powerful position interpolation algorithms, and implementing them at soft X-ray beamlines. The second goal focuses on minimizing the noise of the detector system through the development of a specialized readout chip based on the JUNGFRAU chip from the Paul Scherrer Institute. The outcome of the project will be a large-area soft X-ray RIXS detector with sub-2 µm spatial resolution and multi-kHz image rates. The generated results are expected to innovate the field of instrumentation for soft X-ray science at FEL and SR facilities worldwide and pave the way toward ultrafast and high-throughput experiments. Furthermore, the developed technology will have applications across a variety of spectroscopic, diffraction, and imaging techniques beyond RIXS.

As every year, on September 18, the annual PSI FoKo poster event took place; for the very first time at ParkInnovaare. PhD students and postdocs from both PSI research centers, CNM and CPS, presented their work/projects. Among them, many PSI-FELLOW postdocs from the 2 research centers showed their current projects and results.

The 2024 PSI Symposium took place last Thursday, June 13^th. Involving more than 50 PSI postdocs and Ph.D. students, as well as six guest speakers, attendees were able to gain valuable insights into the challenges of integrating academic research, private industry, and personal life conditions. The main addressed topics throughout the symposium centered around the nuanced complexities of real-life scenarios of the speakers. These are individuals who have successfully blended their academic pursuits with the dynamic demands of industry, all while managing familial and administrative responsibilities. While the symposium dealt with scientific isssues, its real value was revealed through the unscripted, authentic journeys of individuals from diverse socio-economic and geographic backgrounds. The primary aim was that through the speakers’ narratives, PSI's Ph.D. and postdoc community would be able to gain insights into the perspectives and pitfalls of venturing into such uncharted territories. The PSI FELLOW board and program management unit consider the event as a full success! Thanks to everyone who joined and a special big thank you to our speakers!

The PSI-FELLOW postdocs were invited by Michal Studniarek (Research Team Manager, Power Device Physics) to a site visit in Baden-Dättwil. We tremendously enjoyed the talks, presentations and lab tour, providing us with great insights of ABB's various activities. Further networking and discussions with the ABB team took place during the offered lunch and was highly appreciated. With Michal being a former MSCA PSI-FELLOW postdoc (PSI-FELLOW-II-3i program, 2016 – 2021), future possible career paths were clearly shown. 

For many of the 31 employed PSI-FELLOW postdocs (1st call 2020), it will be soon time to say good-bye to the Fellow program. This has been celebrated with a lovely dinner on Wednesday, April 19 in Baden. Our best wishes for a bright and challenging future - from the Management Unit to all who are leaving or have left already.

Our current in-house PSI-FELLOW-III-3i postdocs (1st call, 2021- 2023) were presenting their work due to a poster session at PSI's "Tag der offenen Tür" on October 23, 2022.

New PSI-FELLOW-II-3i postdocs taking up their duties (2nd call, 2019 - 2021)

Within the second call, 29 out of 59 eligible applicants were employed during the last months. On September 19, 2019, they were all invited to join the "welcome meeting" in which the program management unit (PMU) was providing essential information about the program and its continuos education program. The PSI-FELLOW-II-3i program offers these researchers the opportunity to perform their innovative scientific project in one of the four attractive scientific fields tackled at PSI: i) materials and matters, ii) life-sciences, iii) energy and environment and iv) accelerator technologies.

This second call was the last call for applications under this program.