Congratulations to JILA graduate students Anya Grafov and Iona Binnie—who conduct their cutting-edge research in the laboratory of JILA Fellows and the University of Colorado Boulder professors Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn—for their outstanding achievements at the MMM Intermag 2025 conference!
“I'm grateful to the IEEE Magnetics Society for the opportunity to share my research and honored to be recognized,” said Grafov. “The Young Professionals Lightning Talks required us to present our research to a general audience in just two minutes. Ultrafast magnetism and extreme ultraviolet light science are complex topics, so explaining my entire project in such a short time was no easy task. Summarizing my project without jargon or lengthy explanations was a rewarding challenge that strengthened my science communication skills.”
Grafov earned 1st Place in the Young Professionals Lightning Talks for her presentation, “Measuring Magnetic Dynamics with Extreme Ultraviolet Light,” while Binnie won the Best Poster Award in her session for her poster, “Probing Skyrmions via High Harmonic Driven Ultrafast Magnetic Scattering and Coherent 3D X-ray Vector Ptychography.”
“Presenting my poster was a demanding but very rewarding experience,” added Binnie. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to share my research with the magnetics community, which is a different audience than I am used to. Their questions sparked new insights into my own research challenges.”
Their achievements showcase the innovative work happening at JILA in the fields of ultrafast magnetism and extreme ultraviolet light science.
Written by Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, JILA Science Communicator
The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. PFCs also include creative, substantive activities aimed at enhancing education, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented groups, and outreach to the scientific community and general public.