Berkeley, Calif. — Senior Scientist Oliver Gessner has been selected as a 2026 DESY Stephenson Distinguished Visitor. The Stephenson Distinguished Visitor Program supports renowned scientists in visiting the DESY Research Center in Hamburg, Germany, to foster collaborations with DESY scientists in the field of photon science research.

Dr. Gessner, who leads the Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences Program, will visit DESY to conduct pioneering experiments at the FLASH Free Electron Laser facility. Together with his collaborators, Dr. Gessner has been awarded beam time at FLASH to investigate ultrafast interfacial charge transfer dynamics in nanoscale heterojunctions. This research aims to deepen our understanding of fundamental electronic processes at material interfaces, which could pave the way for improved devices in sensing, information processing, and next-generation energy technologies.