Nora Berrah, University of Connecticut
When
Where
Abstract: The knowledge of the earliest time dynamics in molecular photophysics and photochemistry is critical to understand how the energy from photons is harnessed, initiating electronic and nuclear motion which is fundamental in many areas of science. Our goal is to understand the coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics induced by the absorption of photons by molecules, which leads first to attosecond electron excitation, followed by nuclear motion in the femtosecond range. This eventually results in the breaking and making of chemical bonds.
Table-top lasers as well as the development of free electron lasers (FELs) in the femtosecond and attosecond regime have led to new science. I will present time-resolved experiments using pumpprobe technique with FELs to watch the response of molecules to femtosecond and attosecond pulses. I will also briefly report on a roaming experiment in acetonitrile carried out with table-top femtosecond IR laser combined with coincident Coulomb explosion imaging and paired with stateof-the-art theoretical simulations. This work focused on measuring unambiguously the roaming of D2 neutrals and the formation of D3 + ions from acetonitrile.
This work was funded by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.
Bio: Nora Berrah is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Connecticut since 2014 where she served as the Head of the Department between 2014-2018. She received her bachelor in theoretical Physics from the University of Algiers, Algeria, her Physics PhD from the University of Virginia, was a postdoctoral fellow and an Assistant Physicist at the Physics Division at Argonne National Laboratory before becoming a Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Western Michigan University. Berrah research interests are in experimental Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics for which she received the David. S. Shirley Award for “Outstanding Scientific Achievements” at the ALS, LBNL, a Humboldt Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany, the Chair d’Excellence from SOLEIL National Synchrotron Laboratory, France, and the Blaise Pascal Chair d’Excellence from the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, Paris, Saclay), France. She received an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Physics from the University of Turku, Finland. Berrah is an American Physical Society (APS) and AAAS Fellow and the recipient of the 2014 APS Davisson-Germer award. Berrah is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Berrah serves on several boards and committees for the APS, AIP, AAAS, NRC, DLS as well as on European Networks. She served on the APS board and was the 2020 Chair of the APS Nominating Committee. She organized and chaired in 2025 a conference for undergraduate women and gender minorities in physics (CU*iP) at UConn to contribute to increase the number of women and gender minorities in Physics.
3:00 PM in PAS 201 / Zoom Meeting https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86395646910
Refreshments in PAS 218, 2:30PM