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John C. H. Spence

Department of Physics, Arizona State University, US
Biography

Regents' Prof John C.H. Spence FRS is Richard Snell Professor of Physics at Arizona State University where he teaches condensed matter physics. He completed a Ph.D. in physics at Melbourne University in Australia, followed by postdoctoral research at Oxford University's Materials Department. His group undertakes research in diffraction physics and new microscopies for materials science and biology. These have included point-projection electron microscopes, time-of-flight STM instruments, the development of quantitative convergent-beam electron diffraction for imaging the chemical bonds between atoms and lensless X-ray imaging. See https://live- spence.ws.asu.edu. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and of the Australian Academy of Science, the author of texts on electron microscopy, and was recently awarded the Buerger Medal of ACA, the Cowley Medal of IFSM and the Distinguished Scientist Medal of MSA. John is a Fellow the AAAS, APS, IOP and MSA, an overseas Fellow of Churchill College, and main editor of IUCrJ. He is currently Director of Science for the NSF’s BioXFEL Science and Technology Center, devoted to the application of X-ray lasers to structural and dynamic molecular biology. This consortium of seven US universities develops new methods for the use of the world's few hard X-ray lasers to the imaging of protein dynamics, including sample delivery, algorithm development and sample preparation. The method has given us time-resolved images at atomic resolution, under near physiological conditions without radiation damage of molecular processes from enzyme catalysis to the cis-trans isomerization reaction and genome ejection from a viral capsid.

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