Pedro Nunes

Pedro Nunes graduated from the University of Manchester in 2014 with a master’s degree in Chemistry (MChem). He then moved to the University of York to enrol in a PhD in Physical Chemistry, where he developed a roadmap to record molecular movies by combining three experimental techniques: gas-phase electron diffraction (GED), time-resolved electron diffraction (TRED) and ultrafast electron diffraction (UED). Following completion of his PhD in 2018, Pedro joined the Centurion group at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska, where he worked in close collaboration with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Laboratory in the development of experimental methodologies for the study of photoinduced molecular dynamics using Mega-electron volt (MeV) Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED). While at SLAC, Pedro spearheaded the design and commissioning of the first electron diffraction instrument capable of imaging photochemical reactions in liquids.

Pedro joined Diamond Light Source in December 2022 as a PDRA on the HeXI project.
 

Pedro’s on-going collaborations include:
•    MeV UED group at SLAC, USA
•    Prof. Martin Centurion group at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska, USA 
•    Prof. Daniel Rolles group at Kansas State University, USA
•    James Parkhurst at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, UK
 

1. Investigation of the milling characteristics of different focused-ion-beam sources assessed by three-dimensional electron diffraction from crystal lamellae, J. M. Parkhurst, A. D. Crawshaw, C. A. Siebert, M. Dumoux, C. D. Owen, P. Nunes, D. Waterman, T. Glen, D. I. Stuart, J. H. Naismith, G. Evans, IUCrJ, 2023, 10, 1-18
2. Multichannel photodissociation dynamics in CS² studied by ultrafast electron diffraction, W. O. Razmus, K. Acheson, P. Bucksbaum, M. Centurion, E. Champenois, I. Gabalski, M. C. Hoffman, A. Howard, M-F. Lin, Y. Liu, P. Nunes, S. Saha, X. Shen, M. Ware, E. M. Warne, T. Weinacht, K. Wilkin, J. Yang, T. J. A. Wolf, A. Kirrander, R. S. Minns, R. Forbes, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2022, 24, 15416–15427
3. Sub-micron thick liquid sheets produced by isotropically etched glass nozzles, C. J. Crissman, M. Mo, Z. Chen, J. Yang, D. A. Huyke, S. H. Glenzer, K. Ledbetter, J. P. F. Nunes, M. L. Ng, H. Wang, X. Shen, X. Wang, D. P. DePonte, Lab Chip, 2022, 22, 1365–1373
4. Ultrafast electron diffraction: Visualizing dynamic states of matter, D. Filippetto, P. Musumeci, R. K. Li, B. J. Siwick, M. R. Otto, M. Centurion, J. P. F. Nunes, Rev. Mod. Phys. 94, 045004
5. Conformer-specific photochemistry imaged in real space and time, E. G. Champenois, D. M. Sanchez, J. Yang, J. P. Figueira Nunes, A. Attar, M. Centurion, R. Forbes, M. Gühr, K. Hegazy, F. Ji, S. K. Saha, Y. Liu, M.-F. Lin, D. Luo, B. Moore, X. Shen, M. R. Ware, X. J. Wang, T. J. Martínez, T. J. A. Wolf, Science, 374, 178–182 (2021)
6. Strong-field induced fragmentation and isomerization of toluene probed by ultrafast femtosecond electron diffraction and mass spectrometry, Y.Xiong, K. Borne, A. M. Carrascosa, S. K. Saha, K. J. Wilkin, M. Yang, S. Bhattacharyya, K. Chen, W. Du, L. Ma, N. Marshall, J. P. F. Nunes, S. Pathak, Z. Phelps, X. Xu, H. Yong, K. Lopata, P. M. Weber, A. Rudenko, D. Rolles, M. Centurion, Faraday Discuss., 2021,228, 39-59 
7. Structure retrieval in liquid-phase electron scattering, J. Yang, J. P. F. Nunes, K. Ledbetter, E. Biasin, M. Centurion, Z. Chen, A. A. Cordones, C. Crissman, D. P. Deponte, S. H. Glenzer, M. -F. Lin, M. Mo, C. D. Rankine, X. Shen, T. J. A. Wolf, X. Wang, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 1308-1316 
8. Structural and Thermochemical Studies of Pyrrolidine Borane and Piperidine Borane by Gas Electron Diffraction and Quantum Chemical Calculations, A. Ja’o, D. A. Wann, C. D. Rankine, J. P. F. Nunes, J. Guillemin, S. Masters, Structural Chemistry, 2021, 32, 205-213 
9. Photodissociation of aqueous I3− observed with liquid-phase ultrafast mega-electron-volt electron diffraction, K. Ledbetter, E. Biasin, J. P. F. Nunes, M. Centurion, K. J. Gaffney, M. Kozina, M. -F. Lin, X. Shen, J. Yang, X. J. Wang, T. J. A. Wolf, A. A. Cordones, Structural Dynamics, 2020, 7, 064901 
10. Simultaneous observation of nuclear and electronic dynamics by ultrafast electron diffraction, J. Yang, X. Zhu, J. P. F. Nunes, J. K. Yu, R. M. Parrish, T. J. A. Wolf, M. Centurion, M. Gühr, R. Li, Y. Liu, B. Moore, M. Niebuhr, S. Park, X. Shen, S. Weathersby, T. Weinacht, T. J. Martinez, X. Wang, Science, 2020, 368(6493), 885-889 
11. Spectroscopic and Structural Probing of Excited-State Molecular Dynamics with Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Ultrafast Electron Diffraction, Y. Liu, S. L. Horton, J. Yang, J. P. F. Nunes, X. Shen, T. J. A. Wolf, R. Forbes, C. Cheng, B. Moore, M. Centurion, K. Hegazy, R. Li, M.-F. Lin, A. Stolow, P. Hockett, T. Rozgonyi, P. Marquetand, X. Wang, and T. Weinacht, Phys. Rev. X, 2020, 10, 021016 
12. Liquid-phase mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction, J. P. F. Nunes, K. Ledbetter, M. Lin, M. Kozina, D. P. DePonte, E. Biasin, M. Centurion, C. J. Crissman, M. Dunning, S. Guillet, K. Jobe, Y. Liu, M. Mo, X. Shen, R. Sublett, S. Weathersby, C. Yoneda, T. J. A. Wolf, J. Yang, A. A. Cordones, X. J. Wang, Structural Dynamics, 2020, 7, 024301 
13. Femtosecond gas-phase mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction, X. Shen, J. P. F. Nunes, J. Yang, R. K. Jobe, M. -F. Lin, B. Moore, M. Niebuhr, S. P. Weathersby, T. J. A. Wolf, C. Yoneda, M. Guehr, M. Centurion, X. J. Wang, Structural Dynamics, 2019, 6, 054305 
14. The photochemical ring-opening of 1,3-cyclohexadiene imaged by ultrafast electron diffraction, T. J. A. Wolf, D. M Sanchez, J. Yang, R. M. Parrish, J. P. F. Nunes, M. Centurion, R. Coffee, J. P. Cryan, M. Gühr, K. Hegazy, A. Kirrander, R. K. Li, J. Ruddock, X. Shen, T. Vecchione, S. P. Weathersby, P. M. Weber, K. Wilkin, H. Yong, Q. Zheng, X. J. Wang, M. P. Minitti, T. J. Martínez, Nat. Chem., 2019, 11, 504–509 
15. Chapter Two - Ultrafast and three-dimensional diffractive imaging of isolated molecules with electron pulses, J. P. F. Nunes, M. Centurion, Advances in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, 2019, 68, 39-73 
16. Imaging CF3I conical intersection and photodissociation dynamics with ultrafast electron diffraction, J. Yang, X. Zhu, T. J. A. Wolf, Z. Li, J. P. F. Nunes, R. Coffee, J. P. Cryan, M. Gühr, K. Hegazy, T. F. Heinz, K. Jobe, R. Li, X. Shen, T. Veccione, S. Weathersby, K. J. Wilkin, C. Yoneda, Q. Zheng, T. J. Martinez, M. Centurion, X. Wang, Science, 2018, 361(6397), 64-67 
17. The roughening kinetics of hydrogenated graphene, S. Son, J. F. Nunes, Y. Shin, J-H. Lee, C. Casiraghi, Scientific Reports, 2018, 8, 8771 
18. Structure of 4-(Dimethylamino)benzonitrile Using Gas Electron Diffraction: A New Lease of Life for the Only Gas Electron Diffractometer in the U.K, C. D. Rankine, J. P. F. Nunes, T. W. B. Lock, S. Young, D. A. Wann, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2018, 122(25), 5656–5665 
19. “A Theoretical Investigation of the Non-Ergodicity of Internal Conversion in 1,2-Dithiane Using Non-Adiabatic Multiconfigurational Molecular Dynamics”, C. D. Rankine, J. P. F. Nunes, M. S. Robinson, P. D. Lane and D. A. Wann. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 27170-27174. 
20. A computational analysis of the apparent nido vs. hypho conflict: are we dealing with six- or eight-vertex open-face diheteroboranes?, J. P. F. Nunes, J. Holub, D. W. H. Rankin, D. A. Wann, D. Hnyk, Dalton Trans., 2015, 44, 11819-11826