Prof Ursel Bangert

Bernal Chair in Microscopy and Imaging

Ursel Bangert is Bernal Chair in Microscopy and Imaging at the University of Limerick, following positions of Reader and Lecturer at the Universities of Manchester and Surrey, and a career of more than 30 years in the area of electron microscopy.

Curriculum vitae

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ursel.bangert@ul.ie

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About Ursel
Ursel Bangert is Bernal Chair in Microscopy and Imaging at the University of Limerick, following positions of Reader and Lecturer at the Universities of Manchester and Surrey, and a career of more than 30 years in the area of electron microscopy. She has been heavily involved in the conception and managerial activities of Electron Microscopy Facilities at Liverpool (NorthWest STEM; Co-I) and at Daresbury (SuperSTEM; Co-I), and has been overseeing the Manchester University School of Materials Electron Optical facilities. She is currently building up an International Centre for Ultra-High Resolution Imaging and Characterisation at the University of Limerick, where she obtained funding for a world-class Titan Themis double corrected, monochromated, analytical transmission electron microscope.

Her intention and vision has been and is to use top-of-the-range Electron Microscopy instrumentation to ‘see and understand materials on the atomic scale’, i.e., to further the topic of highly spatially resolved (single atom) imaging in combination with atomic scale spectroscopy so as to access/assess the electronic and optical properties of materials, in particular of nano-materials (novel 2-, 1- and 0-dimensional materials), and to furthermore combine this with in-situ techniques, so as to directly follow the atomic-scale behaviour of such materials. e.g., under electrical bias or in chemical-atmosphere conditions. All this will serve fundamental research, but also aims at exploring/ improving practical use of these nanostructures in photo-emission, sunlight harvesting and photovoltaics, with the aim of designing prototype devices.

Research Activities
Ursel Bangert’’s past research activities encompass investigations of microstructure and hetero-microstructure, self-organized growth phenomena and plasmonics of semiconductors. She has pioneered low loss electron energy loss (EEL) spectroscopy for highly spatially resolved electronic structure studies in wide bandgap semiconductors and diamond as well as single atom spectroscopy of carbon nanotubes. Since its discovery she has worked on Graphene (and other 2-Ds discovered shortly thereafter), carrying out electron microscopy in the Manchester Graphene Group (A. Geim, Nobel Prize 2010), and was first to conduct atomic resolution HAADF imaging and morphology studies via electron diffraction, as well as electron energy loss spectroscopy on this ‘wonder’ material.

Indicators of Academic and Professional Standing
Ursel Bangert has authored or co-authored over 180 publications and book chapters, in peer-reviewed international journals, click here to see all publications by Ursel Bangert; she gives frequent, invited talks, and is member of Professional Societies (RMS (fellow), EMS, MSI) and national and international funding evaluation panels (FLAG-ERA, NSF, EPSRC, SFI). She has organized workshops, conferences and conference sessions. She has participated in creating Euro ~23M of research funding (as PI or Co-I) from research funding agencies to industrial sponsorship. She has collaboration with a large number of industrial and academic organisations worldwide.

Teaching and Outreach Activities
Ursel Bangert has been involved in all areas of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching including the development and coordination of new courses and laboratory classes and role of course coordinator and course director. She has taught on individual and small group levels through to classes of 250+ students, on university degree courses, service- and specialist courses, to various audiences, from school children to specialists on scientific workshops, employing ‘chalk and talk’ methods, problem-based, and quite often, application oriented teaching.

She has partaken in the design and manning of exhibitions (‘Graphene- unexpected Science in a Pencil Line’ at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2011), and of an electron microscopy exhibit, the Virtual Microscope installed in the Museum of Science and Industry at Manchester and made into a movie for the Royal Microscopical Society and the Manchester University websites (also downloadable from the App Store for iPad and Android). She has also partaken in an episode of the BBC4 series: ‘The Secret World of Materials’ and also the ITV1 News, as well as in a documentary of the world-class Daresbury SupeSTEM facility

She is an active promoter of gender equality in science (in outreach activities and on the UL Athena SWANN steering committee.