Dr Olga Matsarskaia awarded the DPG prize

ILL warmly congratulates Dr. Olga Matsarskaia (ILL SANS staff scientist), the winner of the 2020 dissertation award from the Condensed Matter Section of the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG). The prize was awarded during the virtual 41st "Day of the DPG" on November 13th, 2020.

Dr. Olga Matsarskaia's dissertation is entitled "Multivalent ions for tuning the phase behaviour of protein solutions". Using both X-ray and neutron scattering as well as a variety of complementary methods, Dr. Matsarskaia was able to show how subtle ion-specific effects can translate into dramatic differences of the phase behaviour of aqueous protein solutions. Notably, her work highlights how ion-specific parameters can be used to rationally tune this phase behaviour. This is of special relevance for inducing the growth of protein crystals, a well-known bottleneck in structural biology.
The systems she established can furthermore be used as models to draw conclusions on the importance of protein interactions, e.g. in different diseases where aberrant protein interactions play a role. Finally, a thorough understanding of charge-mediated interactions is an important step for designing biologically compatible, stimulus-responsive ("smart") materials.

The phenomena Dr. Matsarskaia described in her dissertation are thus of interest for a broad research community, encompassing biology, biophysics as well as material science.