Rate My Professor Sara Bals

Her research specializes in the application and development of electron tomography for the 3D characterization of functional nanomaterials at the atomic scale, including in situ measurements under realistic conditions such as heating, liquid, or gas flow. Key projects include the ERC Starting Grant 'Colouring Atoms in 3 Dimensions' (2013) and ERC Consolidator Grant 'REALNANO: 3D Structure of Nanomaterials under Realistic Conditions' (2019), along with the Francqui Research Professor mandate (2017–2020). She has received the European Microscopy Society Award (2020), ACS Nano Lectureship Award (2021), and election to the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Bals is an associate editor for ACS Nano and has authored over 475 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, amassing over 24,000 citations and an h-index of 80 on Google Scholar. Notable works include 'Three-dimensional valency mapping in ceria nanocrystals' (2014), 'Fast Electron Tomography for Nanomaterials' (2020), and contributions to the 'Handbook of Nanoscopy' (Wiley-VCH). Her innovations, such as ultraclean graphene grids and SEEBIC imaging, have advanced high-throughput 3D analysis of beam-sensitive materials like perovskites and chiral nanoparticles, impacting fields including catalysis, optoelectronics, energy storage, and sustainable technologies through structure-property correlations and dynamic studies.