Nora Berrah
University of Connecticut
Investigating Ultrafast Molecular Dynamics using Tabletop and Free Electron Lasers
Location: 1080 Physics Research Building
Faculty Host: Sasha Landsman
Abstract: The knowledge of the earliest time dynamics in molecular photophysics and photochemistry is critical to understand how the energy from photons is harnessed, initiating electronic and nuclear motion which is fundamental in many areas of science. Our goal is to understand the coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics induced by the absorption of photons by molecules, which leads first to attosecond electron excitation, followed by nuclear motion in the femtosecond range. This eventually results in the breaking and making of chemical bonds. Table-top lasers as well as the development of free electron lasers (FELs) in the femtosecond and attosecond regime have led to new science. I will present time-resolved experiments using pump-probe technique with FELs to watch the response of molecules to femtosecond and attosecond pulses. I will also report on table-top laser research investigating roaming, ring opening and molecular dissociation dynamics in acetonitrile, methanol and 2-bromothiophene, carried out using femtosecond IR/UV laser pulses combined with coincident Coulomb explosion imaging and paired with state- of-the-art theoretical calculations. This work was funded by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation
Bio: Nora Berrah is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Physics Department
at the University of Connecticut since 2014 where she served as the Head of the
Department between 2014-2018. She received her bachelor in theoretical Physics from
the University of Algiers, Algeria, her Physics PhD from the University of Virginia, was a
postdoctoral fellow and an Assistant Physicist at the Physics Division at Argonne National
Laboratory before becoming a Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Western Michigan
University. Berrah research interests are in experimental Atomic, Molecular and Optical
Physics for which she received the David. S. Shirley Award for “Outstanding Scientific
Achievements” at the ALS, LBNL, a Humboldt Fellowship from the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation, Germany, the Chair d’Excellence from SOLEIL National
Synchrotron Laboratory, France, and the Blaise Pascal Chair d’Excellence from the
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA, Paris, Saclay), France. She received an
Honorary Doctoral Degree in Physics from the University of Turku, Finland. Berrah is an
American Physical Society (APS) and AAAS Fellow and the recipient of the 2014 APS
Davisson-Germer award. Berrah is a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Berrah serves on several
boards and committees for the APS, AIP, AAAS, NRC, DLS as well as on European
Networks. She served on the APS board and was the 2020 Chair of the APS Nominating
Committee. She organized and chaired in 2025 a conference for undergraduate women
and gender minorities in physics (CU*iP) at UConn to contribute to increase the number
of women and gender minorities in Physics
