Towards the bottom of the periodic table

Kristina Kvashnina leads the project TOP (Towards the bottom of the periodic table) funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The project has received 1.5 million euros and will take place over the next 5 years from 1^st of January 2018.

Dr. Habil. Kristina Kvashnina

Scientific background: Physicist

Special interests: Experimental and theoretical investigations of lanthanides and actinides by XANES, HERFD, XES and RIXS techniques.

Current status: ERC Group Head

After earning a MA degree in theoretical physics at Ural State University (Ekaterinburg, Russia) and a PhD degree in experimental physics at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) Kristina moved to Grenoble France, where she conducted pioneering research on actinide systems using advanced high energy resolution X-ray spectroscopy methods.

Kristina is a main editor of IUCr's - Journal of Synchrotron Radiation and Professor at the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University, Russia.

Dr. Lucia Amidani

Scientific background: Physicist

Special interests: the use of XAS, XES and RIXS coupled with theoretical simulations to understand the elect4ronic structure of solid state materials

Current status: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

After her MA degree in solid state physics, Lucia joined the group of X-ray and Synchrotron radiation of Bologna University for her PhD and a first post-doctoral fellowship. After this experience focused on the use of XAS and XES to semiconductor systems, she moved to Grenoble and joined the ID26 beamline at ESRF to study lanthanides based luminescent materials with high energy resolution spectroscopy. From 2018 Lucia is involved in the theoretical understanding of actinide/lanthanide nanomaterials.

Dr. Stephen Bauters

Scientific background: Chemist

Special interests: Energy dispersive detectors, beam line control, XRF MC-quantification, XAS, SPEC

Current status: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Stephen received his PhD at Ghent University (Belgium) in a collaboration project with the ESRF CRG beam line BM26 DUBBLE, for which he constructed a polycapillary optics based confocal setup for XRF and XAS. He can often be found writing SPEC macros.

Dr. Paul Estevenon

Scientific background: Chemist

Special interests: nuclear materials, actinide chemistry (especially plutonium), hydrothermal syntheses

Current status: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Paul performed his PhD in collaboration between CEA Marcoule and ICSM on the synthesis of plutonium silicate and more generally AnSiO4 phases. Since October 2019, he is based on the Atalante facility at CEA Marcoule (France).

Evgeny Gerber

Scientific background: Chemist

Special interests: Actinides and lanthanides chemistry, environmental radioactivity

Current status: PhD student

Evgeny is a PhD student from Moscow State University (Russia), working on synthesis and characterization of the actinide and lanthanide nanomaterials using laboratory and synchrotron analytical methods.

Jurij Galanzew

Scientific background: Chemist

Current status: PhD student

Jurij is from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). His MS study at ROBL of ESRF in 2018 was focused on understanding the electronic structure of thorium systems by different theoretical and experimental approaches. Currently Jurij is a shared PhD student at KIT and HZDR for a period of three years (2018-2021).

Anastasia Smirnova

Scientific background: Chemist

Current status: PhD student/ Trainee

Anastasia is a PhD student from Moscow State University (Russia), working on modelling X-ray absorption spectroscopy data. She is a trainee at the ROBL of ESRF for a period of 6 months in 2021.

Irina Sinenko

Status: Trainee (01/03/2018 - 01/09/2018)

Dr. Ivan Pidchenko

Status: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Anna Volkova

Status: Trainee (01/07/2019 - 01/11/2019)

Tatiana Poliakova

Scientific background: Chemist

Status: PhD student/Trainee (10/01/2021 - 08/05/2019)