Name: Synchrotron X-rays for Metals in Plants, Soils, and Environmental Systems: Early Science and Community Building at XLEAP
Start: 2026-08-05T08:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-08-07T17:00:00-04:00
Location: Cornell University

Synchrotron X-rays for Metals in Plants, Soils, and Environmental Systems: Early Science and Community Building at XLEAP

from Wednesday, August 5, 2026 (8:00 AM) to Friday, August 7, 2026 (5:00 PM)

Monday, August 3, 2026
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
Wednesday, August 5, 2026

8:00 AM Registration and breakfast (provided)
Registration and breakfast (provided)
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Room: Emerson 135
9:00 AM Welcome - Olena K Vatamaniuk (Cornell University) Xingen Lei Joel Brock Marcus Smolka
Welcome
- Olena K Vatamaniuk (Cornell University)
- Xingen Lei
- Joel Brock
- Marcus Smolka
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
9:15 AM Introduction to XLEAP - Louisa Smieska
Introduction to XLEAP
- Louisa Smieska
9:15 AM - 9:45 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
9:45 AM Fundamental processes in plant nutrient homeostasis
9:45 AM - 10:30 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

9:45 AM Plant interactions with soil composition in the extremophile Arabidopsis halleri - Ute Kraemer (Ruhr University Bochum)

10:15 AM Connecting mineral nutrient homeostasis to fertility and crop yield through synchrotron-based XRF microscopy - JU-CHEN CHIA
10:30 AM Coffee break
Coffee break
10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
10:45 AM Fundamental processes in plant nutrient homeostasis
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

10:45 AM A tomato under the beam: Tackling the challenges of fresh-tissue SXRF analysis [virtual] - Paco ROMERO (Postharvest Physiology and Biotechnology for Food Sustainability Lab. Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), Paterna, Valencia, Spain.)

11:00 AM Toward multimodal synchrotron imaging of pollen wall development in Arabidopsis [virtual] - Teagen Quilichini (University of Saskatchewan)

11:15 AM Transgenerational effects of water limitation on seed morphology, ionome, and performance under nutrient limiting conditions [virtual] - David Mendoza-Cozatl (University of Missouri)
11:45 AM Lunch (provided)
Lunch (provided)
11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
Room: Emerson 135
12:45 PM Plant–soil interfaces and biogeochemical cycling
12:45 PM - 2:15 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

12:45 PM Unraveling Dynamic Iron Regulation at the Plant–Microbe Interface - Wolfgang Busch (Salk Institute for Biological Studies)

1:15 PM Mycorrhizal-Bacterial Interactions and Resource Fluxes at the Plant-Soil Interface - Rachel Hestrin (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

1:45 PM Root-secreted Coumarins Increase Phosphorus Bioavailability to Plants through Reductive Dissolution of Iron - Christopher Schuler (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

2:00 PM Tracing Mineral Copper Acquisition in Grasses through Imaging and Reduction Kinetics - Luna Natoli (Cornell University)
2:15 PM Coffee break
Coffee break
2:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
2:30 PM Metals and nutrient cycling in aquatic systems
2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

2:30 PM Cell Wall Architecture and Dynamics in the Streptophyte Alga, Penium margaritaceum - Josephine LoRicco (Muhlenberg College)

3:00 PM Selenium exposure differentially influences methylmercury retention in mayflies - Jacqueline Gerson (Cornell University)

3:30 PM Imaging Elements in Fish “Hard Parts” To Make Discoveries About Their Secret Lives [virtual] - Karin Limburg (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry)
3:45 PM Break- coffee and tour logistics
Break- coffee and tour logistics
3:45 PM - 4:00 PM
Room: Bradfield 101

4:00 PM Walk to CHESS for tours
Walk to CHESS for tours
4:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room: Bradfield 101

4:15 PM Tours of CHESS

4:15 PM - 6:00 PM

6:30 PM Banquet dinner

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Thursday, August 6, 2026

8:30 AM Breakfast (provided)
Breakfast (provided)
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Room: Emerson 135

9:00 AM Announcements
Announcements
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
9:15 AM Plants under stimuli (environmental stress, nanoparticles, pathogens)
9:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

9:15 AM Toward Live Elemental Imaging of Anoxia Responses in Plants - Kendal Hirschi

9:45 AM Exploring plant-environment interactions through multimodal imaging at SSRL - Shuxiao Zhang (SLAC National Laboratory)

10:15 AM Meeting at the Gate: The Role of Root Barriers in Microbe-Induced Resistance - Valeria Castaldi (Yale University)

10:30 AM Foliar application of Nanoscale Iron and Manganese Micronutrients in full life cycle of Soybean (Glycine Max) [virtual] - Sharif Uddin Ahmed (UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO)
10:45 AM Group photo
Group photo
10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Bradfield 101

11:00 AM Coffee break
Coffee break
11:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
11:15 AM Plants and critical minerals
11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

11:15 AM The Microbe-Mineral Atlas and Biomining Critical Elements [virtual] - Buz Barstow (Cornell University)

11:45 AM Advances in Simultaneous Reduction and Nitriding of Iron Oxides using Ammonia by Harnessing Operando Cross-Scale X-Ray Scattering Measurements [virtual] - Greeshma Gadikota (Columbia University)
12:15 PM Lunch (provided)
Lunch (provided)
12:15 PM - 1:30 PM
Room: Room 135
1:30 PM Discussion of operations - Joel Brock
Discussion of operations
- Joel Brock
1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
2:15 PM Plants and food safety and nutritional quality
2:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

2:15 PM Synchrotron XRF-based analyses of minerals distribution in tef (Eragrostis tef) seeds and transgenic Arabidopsis and rice expressing tef Iron-responsive genes [virtual] - Ayalew Osena (University of North Carolina Greensboro)

2:30 PM A novel μXRF based approach to mapping Fe Absorption across the small intestine (Gallus gallus) - Eliot Dugan (Cornell University)

2:45 PM The atomic- and molecular underpinnings by which exposure to the anthropogenic exposome impacts food quality. - Mahesh Narayan (The University of Texas at El Paso)

3:00 PM Keeping Babies Safe from Farm to Table: Food and Plant Science’s Role in Baby Food Manufacturing - Amber Morey-Lanza (Beech-Nut Nutrition)

3:30 PM Characterizing Impact of Heat Stress on Rice Nutritional Quality and Safety - Harkamal Walia
4:00 PM Poster session
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Room: Emerson 135
Contributions

4:00 PM Refurbished ID21 beamline (ESRF): novel tools for µ-XRF and µ-XANES data acquisition and processing

4:00 PM XLEAP: A new beamline under construction at CHESS

4:00 PM Predicting Spatial Maps of Iron Redox Heterogeneity Using Multi-Energy μXRF

4:00 PM Uranium Bioremediation in Water Using Geobacter Sulfurreducens Electroactive Biofilm on Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode Modified with Nano Zero Valent Iron

4:00 PM Chemical biomarker analysis of Desmophyllum dianthus corals in New York Bight Submarine Canyons

4:00 PM Urea-to-Ammonia Conversion at Proteus mirabilis Modified Pt‑Ni/BDD Electrodes

4:00 PM Multimodal imaging at LiX for plant and environmental sciences

4:00 PM Meeting at the Gate: The Role of Root Barriers in Microbe-Induced Resistance

4:00 PM Exploring the Role of ACA8 and ACA10 in Ion Homeostasis

4:00 PM Imaging Elements in Fish “Hard Parts” To Make Discoveries About Their Secret Lives

4:00 PM Investigating the Role of Copper in Arabidopsis thaliana Reproduction Using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Microscopy

4:00 PM X-ray induced damage in monocot plants at ambient temperature

4:00 PM Identification and characterization of putative mitochondrial copper transporters in Arabidopsis - Olena Vatamaniuk (Cornell University) Xing Liu
Friday, August 7, 2026

8:30 AM Breakfast (provided)
Breakfast (provided)
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Room: Emerson 135

9:00 AM Announcements
Announcements
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
9:15 AM Looking forward
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

9:15 AM X-ray fluorescence microscopy, the next chapter: correlating elemental distributions with structural features - Martina Ralle

9:45 AM Optimising cryofixation of plant tissues for 2D X-ray microscopy: insights from the ID-21 beamline (ESRF) - Gabriel Sgarbiero Montanha (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF))

10:00 AM XLEAP-Enabled Opportunities for Micron-Scale Confocal X-ray Fluorescence Imaging - Arthur Woll (CLASSE)
10:15 AM Coffee break
Coffee break
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
10:30 AM Looking forward
10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Room: Bradfield 101
Contributions

10:30 AM Technique-Independent Analysis Software for Biological Elemental Imaging [virtual] - Tracy Punshon (Dartmouth College)

10:45 AM Synthetic Biology and Programmable Plant Systems - Opening a Dialogue with Plants - Margaret Frank (Cornell University)
11:15 AM Closing remarks and time to complete survey
Closing remarks and time to complete survey
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM
Room: Bradfield 101

11:45 AM Boxed lunch (provided)
Boxed lunch (provided)
11:45 AM - 1:00 PM
Room: Room 135

1:00 PM Optional campus walk and social time

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Room: Bradfield 101

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