Abbas Ourmazd
- Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Physics
Research Interests
Ourmazd develops advanced algorithms to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of non-stationary objects from random, ultra-low-signal sightings of unknown orientation. Applications range from single biomolecules and viruses to non-stationary macroscopic objects such as breathing lungs and beating hearts. More generally, his techniques offer novel search algorithms for furtive signals in a sea of noise.
Biographical Sketch
Abbas Ourmazd earned his BA and his PhD in Physics from the University of Oxford in 1976 and 1979, respectively. From 1980 to 1983 he was a Fellow and Member of the Governing Body at Merton College (UK) and an Oxford Lecturer at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (UK). From 1983 to 1984 he held an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship at Göttingen University (Germany). During the following years Ourmazd worked at Bell Laboratories where his positions included head of Microphysics Research and head of Wireless Strategy. Then he went back to Germany to work as Director of IHP National Laboratory, followed by Chairman of Lesswire AG and CEO of Communicant Semiconductor Technologies AG. From 1995 to 2005 he was Professor and Chair at Brandenburg Technical University.
During the last fifteen years Ourmazd has been Chair of several Committees and Boards, including the Materials Review Board at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the American Physical Society Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics and the American Physical Society Committee on Applications of Physics. He has been an advisor for US National Renewable Energy Laboratories and for the German Minister of Economic Affairs and Technology. During twelve years Ourmazd was a member of the Editorial Board of Semiconductor Science and Technology.
Professor Ourmazd came to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005 as Vice-chancellor for research and Dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Graduate School. At present he holds the rank of Distinguished Professor and he is a member of the Committee on International Scientific Affairs, American Physical Society. As a result of his research, Ourmazd has received ten patents.
Selected Publications
Giannakis, Dimitrios, Slawinska, Joanna, Ourmazd, Abbas, and . Vector-Valued Spectral Analysis of Space-Time DataEd. Zhao, Zhizhen. .
Casadei, Cecilia, Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Schertler, Gebhard, Ourmazd, Abbas, and Santra, Robin. Mitigation of stochastic effects in time-resolved serial crystallography data by low-pass spectral analysis8th Murnau Conference on Structural Biology. .
Casadei, Cecilia M., Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Schertler, Gebhard F., Ourmazd, Abbas, and Santra, Robin. “Dynamics retrieval from stochastically weighted incomplete data by low-pass spectral analysis” Structural Dynamics9.4 (2022).
Cruz-Chu, Eduardo R., Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Mashayekhi, Ghoncheh, Fung, Russell, Ourmazd, Abbas, and Schwander, Peter. “Selecting XFEL single-particle snapshots by geometric machine learning” Structural Dynamics8.1 (2021).
Hosseinizadeh, achmad, Breckwold, N, Fung, Russell, Schmidt, Marius, Schwander, Peter, Santra, R., and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Single-femtosecond atomic-resolution observation of a protein traversing a conical intersection” Nature(2021).
Dashti, Ali, Mashayekhi, Ghoncheh, Shekhar, Mrinal, Hail, Danya B., Salah, Salah, Schwander, Peter, des Georges, Amedee, Singharoy, Abhishek, Frank, Joachim, and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Retrieving functional pathways of biomolecules from single-particle snapshots” Nature Communications11. (2020).
Sobolov, Egor, Zolotarev, Serguey, Giewekemeyer, Klaus, Bielecki, Johan, Okomoto, Kenta, Reddy, Hemanth K., Andreasson, Jakob, Ayyer, Kartik, Barak, Imrich, Bari, Sadia, Barty, Anton, Bean, Richard, Bobkov, Sergey, Chapman, Henry N., Chojnowski, Grzegorz, Daurer, Benedikt J., Dörner, Katerina, Ekeberg, Tomas, Flückiger, Leonine, Galzitskaya, Oxana, Gelisio, Luca, Hauf, Steffen, Hogue, Brenda G., Horke, Daniel A., Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Illyin, Vyacheslav, Jung, Chulho, Kim, Chan, Kim, Yoonhee, Kirian, Richard A., Kirkwood, Henry, Kulyk, Olena, Letrun, Romain, Loh, Duane, Messerschmidt, Marc, Mühlig, Kerstin, Ourmazd, Abbas, Raab, Natascha, Rode, Andrei V., Rose, Max, Round, Adam, Sata, Takushi, Schubert, Robin, Schwander, Peter, Sellberg, Jonas A., Sikorski, Marcin, Silenzi, Alessandro, Song, Changyong, Spence, John C., Stern, Stephan, Sztuk-Dambietz, Jolanta, Teslyuk, Anthon, Timneanu, Nicusor, Trebbin, Martin, Utrecht, Charlotte, Weinhausen, Britta, Williams, Garth J., Xavier, P L., Xu, Chen, Vartanyants, Ivan, Lamzin, Victor S., Mancuso, Adrian, and Maia, Filipe R.“Megahertz single-particle imaging at the European XFEL” Communications Physics(2020).
Ourmazd, Abbas. Cryo-EM, XFELs, and the Structure Conundrum in Structural BiologyNature Methods. 2019.
Gisriel, Chris, Coe, Jesse, Letrun, Romain, Yefanov, Oleksandr M., Luna-Chavez, Cesar, Stander, Natasha E., Lisova, Stella, Mariani, Valerio, Kuhn, Manuela, Aplin, Steve, Grant, Thomas D., Doerner, Katerina, Sato, Tokushi, Echelmeier, Austin, Villarreal, Jorvani C., Hunter, Mark S., Wiedorn, Max O., Knoska, Juraj, Mazalova, Victoria, Roy-Chowdhury, Shatabdi, Yang, Jay-How, Jones, Alex, Bean, Richard, Bielecki, Johan, Kim, Yoonhee, Mills, Grant, Weinhausen, Britta, Meza, Jose D., Al-Qudami, Nasser, Bajt, Sasa, Brehm, Gerrit, Botha, Sabine, Boukhelef, Djelloul, Brockhauser, Sandor, Bruce, Barry D., Coleman, Matthew A., Danilevski, Cyril, Discianno, Erin, Dobson, Zachary, Fangohr, Hans, Martin-Garcia, Jose M., Gevorkov, Yaroslav, Hauf, Steffen, Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Januschek, Friederike, Ketawala, Gihan K., Kupitz, Christopher, Maia, Luis, Manetti, Maurizio, Messerschmidt, Marc, Michelat, Thomas, Mondal, Jyotirmoy, Ourmazd, Abbas, Previtali, Gianpietro, Sarrou, Iosifina, Schoen, Silvan, Schwander, Peter, Shelby, Megan L., Silenzi, Alessandro, Sztuk-Dambietz, Jolanta, Szuba, Janusz, Turcato, Monica, White, Thomas A., Wrona, Krzysztof, Xu, Chen, Abdellatif, Mohamed H., Zook, James D., Spence, John C. H., , Chapman, Henry N., Barty, Anton, Kirian, Richard A., Frank, Matthias, Ros, Alexandra, Schmidt, Marius, Fromme, Raimund, Mancuso, Adrian P., Fromme, Petra, and Zatsepin, Nadia A.“Membrane protein megahertz crystallography at the European XFEL” NATURE COMMUNICATIONS10. (2019).
Giannakis, Dimitris, Ourmazd, Abbas, Slawinska, Joanna, and Zhao, Zhizhen. “Spatiotemporal Pattern Extraction by Spectral Analysis of Vector-Valued Observables” Journal of Nonlinear Science(2019).
Pande, Kanupriya, Donatelli, Jeffrey J., Malmerberg, Erik, Foucar, Lutz, Poon, Billy K., Sutter, Markus, Botha, Sabine, Basu, Shibom, Doak, R. B., Dorner, Katerina, Epp, Sascha W., Englert, Lars, Fromme, Raimund, Hartmann, Elisabeth, Hartmann, Robert, Hauser, Guenter, Hattne, Johan, Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Kassemeyer, Stephan, Lomb, Lukas, Montero, Sebastian F. Carron, , Menzel, Andreas, Rolles, Daniel, Rudenko, Artem, Seibert, Marvin M., Sierra, Raymond G., Schwander, Peter, Ourmazd, Abbas, Fromme, Petra, Sauter, Nicholas K., Bogan, Michael, Bozek, John, Bostedt, Christoph, Schlichting, Ilme, Kerfeld, Cheryl A., and Zwart, Petrus H.“Free-electron laser data for multiple-particle fluctuation scattering analysis” SCIENTIFIC DATA5. (2018).
Olmos, Jr, J L., Pandey, S, Martin-Garcia, J M., Calvey, G, Katz, A, Knoska, J, Kupitz, C, Hunter, M S., Liang, M, Oberthuer, D, Yefanov, O, Wiedorn, M, Heyman, M, Holl, M, Pande, K, Barty, A, Miller, M D., Stern, S, Roy-Chowdhury, S, Coe, J, Nagaratnam, N, Zook, J, Verburgt, J, Norwood, T, Poudyal, I, Xu, D, Koglin, J, Seaberg, M H., Zhao, Y, Bajt, S, Grant, T, Mariani, V, Nelson, G, Subramanian, G, Bae, E, Fromme, R, Fung, R, Schwander, Peter, Frank, M, White, T A., Weierstall, U, Zatsepin, N, Spence, J, Fromme, P, Chapman, H N., Pollack, L, Tremblay, L, Ourmazd, Abbas, Phillips, Jr, G N., and Schmidt, Marius. “Enzyme intermediates captured "on the fly" by mix-and-inject serial crystallography” BMC biology16.1 (2018): 59.
Ahmad, Hosseinizadeh, Ghoncheh, Mashayekhi, Jeremy, Copperman, Schwander, Peter, Ali, Dashti, Russell, Fung, Marius, Schmidt, ., Brenda, Hogue, Andrew, Aquila, and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Conformational Landscape of a Virus by Single-particle X-ray Scattering” Nature Methods14.9 (2017): 877–881.
Hosseinizadeh, Achmad, Mashayekhi, Goncheh, Copperman, Jeremy, Schwander, Peter, Dashti, Ali, Sepehr, Reyhaneh, Fung, Russel, Schmidt, Marius, Yoon, Chuck, Hogue, Brenda, Williams, Garth J., Aquilla, Andy, and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Conformational Landscape of a Virus by Single-particle X-ray Scattering” Nature Methodsonline. (2017).
Ourmazd, Abbas. “Machine-learning Routes to Dynamics, Thermodynamics, and Work Cycles of Biological Nanomachines” X-ray Free Electron LasersEd. Bergmann, Uwe, Yachandra, Vitall K., and Yano, Junko. London: Royal Society of Chemistry. (2017): 418-433.
Pande, Kanupriya, Hutchinson, Christopher D., Groenhof, Gerrit, Aquilla, Andy, Robinson, Joe S., Tenboer, Jason, Basu, Shibom, DePonte, Daniel D., Liang, Meng, White, Thomas, Zatsepin, Nadia A., Yefanov, Oleksandr, Morozov, Dimitry, Oberthuer, Dominik, Gati, Cornelius, Subramanian, Ganesh, James, Daniel, Zhao, Yun, Koralek, Jacob, Brayshaw, Jennifer, Kupitz, Christopher, Conrad, Chelsie, Roy-Showdhuri, Shatabdi, Coe, Jesse D., Metz, Markus, Xavier, Poulray L., Grant, Thomas E., Koglin, Jason E., Ketawala, Gihan, Fromme, Raimund, Srajer, Vukica, Henning, Robert, Spence, John C., Ourmazd, Abbas, Schwander, Peter, Weierstall, Uwe, Frank, Matthias, Fromme, Petra, Barty, Anton, Chapman, Henry N., Moffat, Keith , van Thor, Jasper J., and Schmidt, Marius. “Femtosecond Structural Dynamics Drives the Trans/Cis Isomerization in Photoactive Yellow Protein” Science352. (2016): 725-729.
Fung, Russell, Hanna, Ataya M., Vendrell, Oriol, Ramakrishna, S, Seideman, Tamar, Santra, Robin , and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Dynamics from Noisy Data with Extreme Timing Uncertainty” Nature532. (2016): 471.
Ourmazd, Abbas. “Preface for Special Issue on Biology with X-ray Lasers” American Institute of Physics, Structural Dynamics2. Ed. Ourmazd, Abbas. (2015): 041501.
Hosseinizadeh, Ahmad, Dashti, Ali, Schwander, Peter, Fung, Russell, and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Single-particle structure determination by X-ray free-electron lasers: Possibilities and challenges” STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS(2015).
Schwander, Peter, Fung, Russell, and Ourmazd, Abbas. “Conformations of Macromolecules and their Complexes from Heterogeneous Datasets” Phil Trans Roy Soc B369.20130567 (2014).