Mohamed Sabba

I was also shocked to hear about Rob Schurko's passing. I didn't know him well, but the NMR community is small, and we had many mutual colleagues. He seemed like a genuinely great guy. He had a sort of quiet ambition that I really admired. Worked hard, built community & lifted others up. #NMRchat

Heramun, Sabba, Yamano, Bengs, Legrady, Pileio, Thompson, Levitt: Spinor Double-Quantum Excitation in the Solution NMR of Near-Equivalent Spin-1/2 Pairs https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.08157 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.08157 https://arxiv.org/html/2602.08157

I am pretty glad to have invented the cSLIC sequence: a solution to a fundamental defect of pulse sequences that are sensitive to RF mismatch and gateway to better hyperpolarization performance in PHIP (and perhaps even DNP). #nmrchat

Error compensation without a time penalty: robust spin-lock-induced crossing in solution NMR A modification of the widely-used spin-lock-induced crossing (SLIC) procedure is proposed for the solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) of strongly coupled nuclear spin systems, including singlet ...

Just dropped these new preprints!

1. Error compensation without a time penalty: robust spin-lock-induced crossing in solution NMR (arxiv.org/abs/2602.08883)

2. Spinor Double-Quantum Excitation in the Solution NMR of Near-Equivalent Spin-1/2 Pairs (arxiv.org/abs/2602.08157)

#nmrchat

Cyclicity of interaction frame transformations We identify a cyclic property of rotation sequences involving piecewise displacements $β$ about arbitrary axes in three dimensions. Specifically, when transformation to the toggling frame is applied s...

New preprint just dropped: arxiv.org/abs/2506.20594

Geometry and quantum control are deeply connected and these connections can manifest in weird (but also fun) ways. It was an absolute pleasure to work on this with @michael-tayler.bsky.social

From a historical perspective - what is incredible (to me) reading quantum literature from the 50s-60s, is that authors would often emphasize how *similar* QM/CM are. To this end, introductions to PhD theses would have thoughtful, intuitive analogies.

… but I guess Weird™ woos the funding agencies.

Happy new year! I want to draw attention to an exciting postdoc fellowship opportunity on quantum sensing + microfluidic technology: zintellect.com/Opportunity/...

We have active projects in this area (as featured recently in Sci. Adv. tinyurl.com/yfukhbtw). Please reach out if interested.

This is a misconception.

2D NMR originated in lectures given at a summer school in Yugoslavia by Jean Jeener in 1971 (doi.org/10.1016/j.pn...). The exercise confused most students but not Richard Ernst's grad student Thomas Baumann who brought back its wisdom (doi.org/10.1002/9780...).

"Alongside ‘AI‘, the word ‘quantum’ has become the latest buzzword in tech marketing, and Samsung has decided to jump on the bandwagon with the launch of Galaxy Quantum 5. [...] Galaxy A55 that’s been given a dose of supposed quantum enhancement."
techhq.com/2024/09/sams...

Time of my life 🤣

Fun fact: the "Knill pulse"; perhaps the most well-known composite pulse in quantum information science - popularized by Ryan, Hodges & Cory¹ in 2010, attributed to Emanuel Knill - was actually first described by Tycko & Pines² in 1984. #nmrchat

¹ doi.org/10.1103/Phys...
² doi.org/10.1016/0009...

I believe it…

Incidentally I found this more objective analysis of string doubling while Googling, which is really cool.

euphonics.org/7-3-multiple...

Could say much the same for "Type B" doubling (that is, the double of the string is nonidentical but tuned an octave higher) which say, contributes to the defining tonal profile of a 12-string guitar. Although this has a more noticeable "chorus" effect.

Type A doubling (that is, same pitch strings; like on ouds) is essential to the tonal character of the instrument[s]… with single strings it don't sound like an oud no more. Doubled strings are never exactly the same pitch and small variations add a lot of essential "texture"

Having played string instruments with doubled strings (ouds, 12-string guitars, etc.) I never felt - at least subjectively - that the doubling leads to notes that are perceivably "louder". [I wonder what a comparison of Fourier spectra amplitudes would look like.]

Signs of the endtimes: for the first time in the 7 years that I've been here at Southampton, they actually gave me card access to fill the magnets over Christmas (instead of having to call security to let me in as usual.)

2025 ISMAR awards

The ISMAR Prize recipient is Dame Clare Grey of the University of Cambridge

The Abragam Prize recipient is Dr. Irene Marco-Rius from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona

Prof Sami Jannin of the University of Lyon is the 2025 Paul Callaghan Lecturer

#NMRchat

Merry Christmas/happy holidays to my buddies in magnetic resonance, quantum, and everything else!

conference poster

Early Morning Lecture Series @enc-conference.org
Monday - Thursday, 7:00 - 7:50 am, by Malcolm Levitt, Professor in Physical Chemistry, University of Southampton www.enc-conference.org/ENC-ISMAR-Ea... #NMRchat #NMR 🧲

Thank you. The memory of the Golden Age of NMR Twitter gave me a will to fight again.

In other news: today I was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK aka job freedom. I am looking for a UK-based (or remote) job after a looong stint in the Levitt group. You might find me useful if you want a pulse sequence guru. #nmrchat

My CV: sabba.me/nmr/cv/

Hello lovely folks of Bluesky! Nice to see old and new faces here, particularly from the NMR community. There's a good bit of healthy noise here now, and I'll try to be more active on this platform.

Follow @globalnmr.bsky.social for online tutorials, conferences and magnetic resonance events and networking!

#NMRchat #chemsky

Another fascinating talk by Malcolm Levitt today at @chimieens.bsky.social. Thank you for stopping by in between two trains.
With some great work by @sabba.bsky.social inside!