Germán Sciaini

Germán Sciaini is a world expert in the field of ultrafast structural dynamics. His group at University of Waterloo develops “atomic-level” cameras based on the use of ultrashort electron bursts. The main two directions in the group involve the determination of molecular structure and dynamics with atomic spatial resolution. He heads the Ultrafast Electron Imaging Laboratory, home of a time-resolved electron diffraction setup and an ultrafast high-resolution electron microscope.

Germán holds the Canada Research Chair in Atomically Resolved Dynamics and Ultrafast High-Resolution Imaging.

• Femtosecond electron diffraction
• Time-resolved structural dynamics
• Ultrafast high-resolution electron imaging
• Strongly correlated materials
• Membrane channels
• Devices and Analytical Methods
• Condensed Matter
• Nanomaterials
• Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Quantum Science
• Photonics
• Optical Systems

• 2006 Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2001 B.Sc., Chemistry, Licenciado en Ciencias Químicas, School of Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

• 2017 Early Researcher Award, Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science
• 2014 Canada Research Chair (Tier 2)
• 2006-08, 2009 First mention, Prof. Hans J. Schumacher award to the best PhD thesis in Chemical Physics in Argentina
• 2006-07, 2008 First mention, Prof. Doctor Luis Federico Leloir award to the best PhD thesis in Chemistry in Argentina
• 2002 Graduate fellowship, National Research Council of Argentina
• 2001 Graduate fellowship, National Agency of Science and Technology, Argentina
• 2000 Undergraduate research fellowship, University of Buenos Aires

• 2015 Health and Safety Committee

• Member, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

• CHEM 120 - General Chemistry 1
  • Taught in 2019, 2021, 2023
• CHEM 350 - Chemical Kinetics
  • Taught in 2021, 2023, 2024
• CHEM 400 - Special Topics in Chemistry
  • Taught in 2020
• CHEM 750 - Selected Topics in Physical Chemistry
  • Taught in 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• N. Rivas, T. Dekker, S. Zhong, A. A. Petruk, K. Pichugin, F. Chen, X. Luo, Y. Sun, A. W. Tsen and G. Sciaini*, “Photoinduced persistent hidden phase in ultrathin Td-MoTe2”. Submitted to Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
• Cheng, Meixin, Nicolas Rivas, Su Ji Lim, Kostyantyn Pichugin, Ariel A. Petruk, Anna Klinkova, Rodney Smith, W. Scott Hopkins, and Germán Sciaini. "Trapping a Photoelectron behind a Repulsive Coulomb Barrier in Solution." The journal of physical chemistry letters 10, no. 19 (2019): 5742-5747.
• Rivas, Nicolás, Germán Sciaini, and Ernesto Marceca. "Static and dynamic scavenging of ammoniated electrons by nitromethane." Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 21, no. 39 (2019): 21972-21978.
• A. A. Petruk, C. R. Allen, N. Rivas, K. Pichugin and G. Sciaini*, “High flow rate nanofluidics for in-liquid electron microscopy and diffraction”, Nanotechnology (2019)
• G. Sciaini*, “Recent advances in ultrafast structural techniques” (invited review article, special issue “Photoinduced Cooperative Phenomena”), Appl. Sci. 9, 1427 (2019)
• E. Khairullina, K. Mosina, R. M. Choueiri, A. P. Paradis, A. A. Petruk, G. Sciaini, E. Krivoshapkina, A. Lee, A. Ahmed and A. Klinkova*, “Trapping an octahedral core in a nanocage: synthesis, plasmonic, and catalytic properties”, NanoScale 11, 3138 (2019)
• A. A. Petruk and G. Sciaini. “Nanofluidic cell and loading platform”. US provisional patent application USPTO 62/801,327; filed by WatCo, February 5, 2019

• April 9, 2015: Waterloo researchers awarded Canada Research Chairs, funding