Robert P. Winarski is a Physicist in the X-ray Science Division at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory working on the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U) Project.  He is the APS Upgrade (APS-U) Project Beamline Installation Coordinator, responsible for managing the successful installation of the nine planned APS-U Feature Beamlines, numerous major beamline enhancements, and the technical representative overseeing the construction of all shielded enclosures and utilities ($23 million).  He is also the Control Account Manager (CAM) for three beamlines, roughly a $43 million portion of the project related to construction of these world-class X-ray facilities.  From 2017-2020, he was the Scientific Lead and Project Manager responsible for the development of the Instrumentation Development, Evaluation & Analysis (IDEA) Beamline which will ultimately become the Coherent High-Energy X-ray Sector for In Situ Science (CHEX) Beamlines Sector for APS-U.

The APS Upgrade Project is designed to transform today’s APS into the ultimate 3-D X-ray microscope, creating the world’s leading storage-ring hard X-ray light source and offering world-class capabilities that will fulfill the U.S. scientific community’s research needs for decades to come. The upgraded APS will offer more than 5,000 unique yearly users the capability to map matter and dynamics across length scales - in real time, in 3-D, in a single experiment.

Dr. Winarski was a co-Principal Investigator for Argonne’s Hard X-ray Nanoprobe Beamline Project ($13 million), which was completed in 2007.  He managed project aspects related to instrument development and construction and installation activities for this beamline.  Robert was a physicist in the X-ray Microscopy Group at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and developed nanotomography and nanoimaging capabilities at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe Beamline (APS 26-ID). The Hard X-ray Nanoprobe combines tomography, fluorescence mapping, and diffraction measurements in a single instrument with a spatial resolution of tens of nanometers for objects measuring up to tens of microns. The penetrating power available at these length scales allows for examinations of subsurface features not visible using other imaging methods.

Robert’s scientific expertise is in X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray imaging, and the design and development of world-class scientific instrumentation.  He has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific publications and holds one patent.

Dr. Winarski received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1994, a Master of Science degree in Physics from Tulane University in 1996 and was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics from Tulane University in 1999.  He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory from 2000 to 2003.

As part of the Center for Nanoscale Materials Project, Dr. Winarski received the R&D 100 Award for the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe in 2009.  Called the ​“Oscars of Innovation,” the R&D 100 Awards recognize and celebrate the top 100 technology products of the year.  He also received an ANL Inventor award in 2008 for the development of the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe instrument.