Pierre Thibault
X-ray Nanoimaging Group (xnig.soton.ac.uk)
University of Southampton, UK
The X-ray Nano-Imaging Group at the University of Southampton, headed by Dr. Pierre Thibault, focuses its activities on the development of high-resolution X-ray phase-contrast techniques and their applications in life and materials sciences. Our expertise in advanced algorithmic methods for image reconstruction is applied to a variety of imaging schemes, with a special emphasis in X-ray ptychography.
X-ray ptychography is a high-resolution imaging technique that relies on the measurement of multiple X-ray diffraction patterns produced when the X-ray beam from high-brilliance synchrotron sources is scattered by a sample. The technique is now being developed in all synchrotron radiation facilities in the world, including Diamond Light Source, the UK synchrotron, conveniently located one hour away from the University of Southampton. The X-ray nanoimaging group has played a central role in the development of ptychography, and currently maintains ptypy (ptycho.github.io/ptypy), one of the few available phase retrieval packages able to reconstruct images from ptychographic datasets. New features are constantly added to the package to improve speed and robustness, and to support new data collection schemes.
The objective of this project is to find new ways of making ptychography faster. Work will be done at the computational level, for instance to improve and expand the current development of GPU accelerated reconstruction engines, and at the hardware level, by exploring faster data acquisition scheme. In the latter case, the work will be conducted primarily at the Diamond Light Source.
The selected candidate should have a good knowledge of optics and be enthusiastic about data analysis and programming (especially in python and C/C++). Past experience with X-ray equipment is valuable but not essential.
This scholarship, available only to United Kingdom and European Union citizens, provides full support of fees, student grant and some research support over a period of 3.5 years.
Interested candidates should send a cover letter and their CV (including the name and coordinates of two references) directly to Dr. Pierre Thibault (pierre.thibault@soton.ac.uk). The position will remain available until a candidate is found.
