Stohr to direct synchrotron radiation lab

By Heather Rock Woods

Professor Joachim Stöhr, an innovative X-ray scientist, has been appointed director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), effective Oct. 1. Deputy director of SSRL since 2000, Stöhr will be the fourth director in the pioneering laboratory's 32-year history.

"I'm looking forward to continuing to attract the best scientists to our outstanding facilities to produce basic and applied research with tremendous benefits for society," Stöhr said.

A Division of the U.S. Department of Energy's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in Menlo Park, SSRL provides experimental facilities to approximately 2,000 scientists worldwide from universities, industries and other laboratories. Using synchrotron radiationenergy at X-ray to ultraviolet wavelengthsthe scientists carry out research related to drug design, environmental cleanup, electronics and many other fields.

"We're fortunate to have such an outstanding scientist with excellent leadership experience become the new leader for SSRL," said outgoing SSRL Director Keith Hodgson, who in May became a deputy director of SLAC as well as director of the new Photon Science Division. "Jo has a world of experience in studying and understanding the behavior of magnetic materials, particularly with applications to the electronics industry."

Stöhr is well known for his leading studies in magnetic materials. His recent work has set a "speed limit" on the speed at which magnetized bits can change direction, which has a direct impact on information storage in computers.

"I am delighted that Jo Stöhr will be the new director," said Patricia Dehmer, the Department of Energy's associate director of science for the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. She called SSRL "a tremendous asset to our nation" in advancing science in materials, chemistry, the environment, geology and structural biology, and said Stöhr is "exceptionally qualified to lead SSRL at a very exciting time in science."

Stöhr received his master's degree in physics at Washington State University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar from 1969 to 1971. He completed his doctoral thesis in his native country, Germany, at the Technical University in Munich in 1974. During postdoctoral study at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1976 and 1977, he participated in the early days of synchrotron radiation experiments at SSRL.

"This exciting time marked the beginning of my long love of synchrotron radiation research," Stöhr said.

Stöhr has continuously developed new techniques to do previously inaccessible science throughout his career, which encompassed work at SSRL (1977-1981), Exxon (1981-1985) and IBM Almaden Research Center (1985-1999). A consulting professor at SSRL from 1994 to 1999, he returned to SSRL full time in 2000 as deputy director and professor. His work has focused on exploring the use of "soft" (lower-energy) X-ray synchrotron radiation, which has become particularly important in areas such as surface science and magnetism. The early work at SSRL also helped stimulate planning for the Advanced Light Source synchrotron laboratory in Berkeley.

Techniques developed by Stöhr helped determine the geometric arrangement and bonding of atoms, molecules and thin organic films on surfaces and among other things solved a 90-year-old puzzle: the origin of liquid crystal alignment on rubbed polymer films, used in flat panel displays. That research also led to new materials and processes for use in tomorrow's flat panel displays. More recently he has developed soft X-ray imaging techniques of magnetic nanostructures.

Stöhr also has been acting head of the new Ultrafast Science Center, a joint SLAC and Stanford project to develop groundbreaking experiments for the Linac Coherent Light Source, which will be the world's first "hard" (higher-energy) X-ray free electron laser. He still leads SSRL's X-Ray Laboratory for Advanced Materials, which has close ties to the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials on the Stanford campus.