Guest researcher at LINXS between Oct 2021 - Nov 2021

Adam Hitchcock was born and educated in Canada (B.Sc., Chemistry, McMaster, 1974; Ph.D., Chemical Physics, UBC, 1978). His research focus is inner shell excitation spectroscopies and spectromicroscopies. A professor at McMaster since 1979, his group has studied inner shell electron energy loss (EELS) spectroscopy of gases and surfaces, using home built instruments. In 1980 he started synchrotron experiments, initially hard X-ray spectroscopy of materials at Cornell (USA), then soft X-ray spectroscopy of gases at LURE (France) and SRC (USA). In 1994 he began developing soft X-ray transmission microscopes (STXM) and photoemission microscopes (PEEM) at ALS (USA). He helped establish the Canadian Light Source (CLS, Saskatoon) and the CLS spectromicroscopy beamline, currently equipped with 2 STXMs and a PEEM. In 2006, he was awarded fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC, Canada’s highest scientific honor), for his contributions to development of X-ray microscopy and the CLS. His current research is focused on technique developments of STXM and ptychography and their application to automotive fuel cell materials, in situ electrochemistry, magnetic bacteria, and catalysts for CO2 reduction.