Alex Pines

Glenn T. Seaborg Professor, Chemistry Senior Principal Investigator, Materials Sciences Division, LBNL Affiliated Professor, QB3 Core Member, UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering Stanley Hall, Room 208B mailcode: 3220 510-642-3767 fax: 510-666-3768 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it http://waugh.cchem.berkeley.edu/ Membership effective July 2008

Research Interests

Pines is a pioneer in the devlelopment and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

Research Summary

Pines is a pioneer in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In his early work, he demonstrated time-reversal of dipole-dipole couplings in many-body spin systems, and introduced high sensitivity, high resolution NMR of dilute spins such as carbon-13 in solids (protein-enhanced nuclear induction spectroscopy), thereby helping to launch the era of modern solid-state NMR in chemistry.

He also developed the areas of multiple-quantum spectroscopy, adiabatic sech/tahn inversion pulses, zero-field NMR, double rotation and dynamic-angle spinning, iterative maps for pulse sequences and quantum control, and the quantum geometric phase. His combination of optical pumping and cross-polarization made it possible to observe enhanced NMR of surfaces and the selective "lighting up" of solution NMR and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by means of laser-polarized xenon. The impact of the program has been substantial. Seeing is believing - novel techniques and devices of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging have expanded our ability to "see" into materials and organisms.

Many of the concepts, methodologies and instrumentation emanating from the Pines lab continue to be adopted worldwide by research groups in academia, federal laboratories and industry, and are being used to investigate molecular structure and organization from the nanoscale dimensions of catalysts and polymers to the macroscopic proportions of human imaging and oil exploration. In terms of education and training, hundreds of scientists (the self-dubbed "Pinenuts") have passed through the lab, and many now hold leading research and teaching positions worldwide. Many patents have been filed, issued and licensed, with methodologies adapted into modern commercial NMR and MRI instrumentation and related commercial applications.

Selected Publications

S. Xu, C.W. Crawford, S. Rochester, V. Yashchuk, D. Budker, A. Pines. Submillimeter-resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the Earth's Magnetic Field with an Atomic Magnetometer. Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008.

L. Schroeder, L. Chavez, T. Meldrum, M. Smith, T.J. Lowrey, D.E. Wemmer, A. Pines. Temperature-controlled Molecular Depolarization Gates in NMR. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2008.

L.S. Bouchard, S. Burt, M.S. Anwar, K. Kovtunov, I. Koptyug, A. Pines. NMR Imaging of Catalytic Hydrogenation in Microreactors Using Parahydrogen. Science, 2008.

V.V. Telki, C. Hilty, S. Garcia, E. Harel, A. Pines. Quantifying the Diffusion of a Fluid through Membranes by Double Phase Encoded Remote Detection MRI. Journal of Physical Chemistry B., 2007.

E. Harel, C, Hilty, K. Koen, E. McDonnell, A. Pines. Time-of-Flight Flow Imaging of Two-Phase Mixing Inside a Microfluididic Chip. Physical Review Letters, 2007.

L. Schroeder, T.J. Lowrey, C. Hilty, D. Wemmer, A. Pines. Molecular Imaging Using a Targeted Magnetic Resonance Hyperpolarized Biosensor. Science, 2006.