Richard Sandberg - Associate Professor, BYU Physics and Astronomy

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Richard Sandberg

Richard Sandberg

Associate Professor

Contact

Office Hours

Tuesdays 2-4:30 pm, Wednesdays 2:00 - 3:00 pm in N269 ESC or by scheduling (contact Bro. Sandberg at rsandberg@byu.edu)

Meetings and Assignments

  • Mondays at 11 am every other week - Ultrafast Laser High Harmonic Generation meeting (U150 ESC)
  • Mondays at 3 pm every other week - Fusion Energy Materials Imaging Project meeting (N288 ESC)
  • Tuesdays 2 pm - Metal strain imaging and damage meeting (N269 ESC and Teams)
  • Tuesdays at 11 am - Devotional/Forum
  • Thursdays at 11-12 am - Physics and Astronomy Department Meetings (usually)
  • Thursdays at 2 pm - Computational X-ray Imaging (CXI) Research Group Meetings - N288 ESC and via MS Teams. If you need the link, please contact Dr. Sandberg.

Spring 2025 Teaching Schedule

Physics 492R TBA TBA TBA TBA
Physics 498R TBA TBA TBA TBA

Research

Specialty: Optics, lasers, computational imaging, x-ray and ultrafast optics, data science

Research Website

Supervised Theses and Dissertations

Publication List

Professional Bio

Research: Development of novel optical and X-ray diagnostics to study materials in extreme conditions and materials at the nanoscale using ultrafast lasers, large scale (synchrotron, XFEL) and tabletop X-ray sources.  Application of X-ray lensless or Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI) to the study of materials under extreme conditions and magnetic ordering at the nanoscale.

Professional Appointments

  • June 2023 - Present: Associate Chair, Department of Physic and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
  • August 2019 - Present: Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
  • April 2011 - July 2019: Staff Member, Laboratory for Ultrafast Materials and Optical Science (LUMOS), Center for Integrated Nanotechnology (MPA-CINT) at Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • June 2009 - April 2011: Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics (CASP), C-PCS Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Han Htoon and Victor Klimov      

Education

PhD, M.S. in Physics, Certificate of Optics—University of Colorado at Boulder and JILA

  • Graduation: May 2009
  • Thesis: “Closing the Gap to the Diffraction Limit: Near Wavelength Limited Tabletop Soft X-Ray Coherent Diffractive Imaging”
  • Also completed NSF IGERT Optical Science and Engineering Fellowship Program and industrial internship with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc. Fall 2006
  • Advisors: Margaret M. Murnane and Henry C. Kapteyn

B.S. in Physics, minors in Mathematics and Business—Brigham Young University

  • Graduation: August 2004 Graduated with Honors (Top 1% of University)
  • Honors Thesis: “Optical applications of Uranium Thin-film Compounds for the Extreme Ultraviolet and Soft X-ray Region”
  • Advisors: David D. Allred and R. Steven Turley

 Professional Activities

  • October 2018 – Co-chair for Workshop “Gap Analysis: Materials Discovery through Data Science at Advanced User Light Sources," October 3-5, 2018 in Santa Fe, NM.
  • Oct. 2016 – Oct. 2019 - SLAC – Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) User Executive Committee Chair (2016-17), Vice Chair (2015-16) and Past Chair (2017-18)
  • October 2016 and October 2017– Scientific Program and Organizing Committee for Annual LCLS/SSRL User Workshop
  • Co-organizer of symposium at the TMS Annual meeting entitled: “Characterization of Materials through High Resolution Coherent Imaging” (2013,2015,2017) – to be held bi-annually.
  • Co-organizer of MaRIE Workshop on “Opportunities for New X-ray Sources to Shed Light on Mesoscale Functional Materials” Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 2016.
  • 2015-2016 - Optical Society of America CLEO Conference Program Committee on Optical Interactions with Condensed Matter and Ultrafast Phenomena
  • December 2014 – Present – SLAC LCLS-II Magnetism & Spin Working Group and LCLS-II Science Opportunities Document Team
  • 2014 – Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies Co-Director and Group Leader Search Committee
  • 2013-2015 - TMS Advanced Characterization, Testing, and Simulation Committee Member
  • 2013-2014 - Optical Society of America CLEO Conference Applications and Technology 3 Committee
  • Guest Editor of Special Section for the Journal of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (JOM) on “Coherent X-ray Diffraction Imaging as a Characterization Tool” September 2013
  • 2012-2016 – Los Alamos Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Review Committee for Exploratory Research Programs: FY2013 – Emergent Phenomenon of Materials (EPM), FY2014 – FY2016 – Quantum and Optical Sciences (QOS), Committee Chair FY2016 – Atomic, Molecular, Quantum, and Optical Sciences (AMQOS) Committee
  • Reviewer for Department of Energy – Basic Energy Sciences, Science Advances, Nature Physics, Nature Photonics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B and X, New Journal of Physics, Optics Letters, Optics Express, and Journal of the Optical Society of America B