German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the most of her two-hour visit to Berkeley Lab on April 15, touring the Molecular Foundry, meeting with Lab scientists and director Paul Alivisatos before and finishing off with a photography session on the Foundry terrace.

Joined in the photograph by more than 70 German postdocs and staff scientists, Merkel, who holds a PhD in physics, made special note of the German community of scientists at the Lab and exchanged pleasantries to laughter and applause.

Merkel was accompanied by more than three dozen reporters from major media outlets in Germany. Reporters were given a tour of the nearby National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM) as well as the Molecular Foundry. One of the highlights of the tour was a video, made by the Foundry’s Alex Weber-Bargioni, showing how a nano meter scale image of the Brandenburg Gate was etched into a one cent Euro coin, using the Focused Ion Beam machine.

A Daily Cal article on the visit can be read here.

A video of German Berkeley Lab scientists welcoming Chancellor Angela Merkel can be viewed here.