Former doctoral student Study program coordinator Timon Baltisberger received Thomas Mortelmans received the Anja Car was presented with the the prize for the best master’s PSI-Impuls Award. Teaching Excellence Award for thesis in nanosciences at the “Service to Teaching.” University of Basel. New head of NI Lab Under control to the very end In 2023, Dr. Markus Wyss took over from Every day, millions of cells die in our body. Many of them kill Dr. Markus Dürrenberger as head of the themselves. Contrary to what was previously assumed, cells do Nano Imaging Lab. not simply burst at the end of their lives. Rather, a speci昀椀c pro- Page 46 tein serves as a predetermined breaking point for cell mem- brane rupture. New production process Page 27 for therapeutic nanovesicles Researchers from the SNI network have New polymer sample holder developed an innovative method for the Researchers from the SNI network have developed and tested e昀케cient production of therapeutic a new type of polymer sample holder that is ideal for the anal- nanovesicles. ysis of crystals at synchrotron and free-electron X-ray laser Page 25 The SNI Annual sources. Event was held Page 28 Investigation of “magic” graphene in the Canton of Researchers from the SNI network have Aargau for the Electron beam lithography also possible examined a two-layer graphene device 昀椀rst time. Prizes on uneven surfaces using an atomic force microscope in were awarded to Researchers from the SNI network have developed a new pendulum mode and demonstrated that Alessandro Bru- method for applying electron beam lithography to uneven sur- the method they used allows 昀椀ne-tuning no for his excel- faces. of not only current 昀氀ow but also magne- lent poster and Page 29 tization in the device. Elizaveta Mak- Page 25 simova for her excellent talk. Increased coherence thanks to cooling A team of researchers has extended the coherence of an electron spin in a gal- lium arsenide quantum dot to over half a microsecond for the 昀椀rst time. They achieved this by using the electron spin-nuclear spin interaction, thereby causing the spin system to cool down to 100 microkelvins. Page 26 SNI Annual Report 2023 5