BAR-ILAN INSTITUTE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED MATERIALS | 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

analyzing a wide range of products including coins, glass, coffee beans, dry milk, luxurious cheeses and wine. Particularly, Dr. Girshevitz’ team collaborates with partners from Finland, Croatia, Vietnam, India, and Italy, focusing on automobile glass. Other teams from Singapore, Jamaica, and Brazil are focused on analyzing food products. These projects have sparked the interest of the Interpol and police forces in Israel and abroad, including a special agency that fights the Italian Mafia. These agencies and forces are active participants in supporting the project. “The Israeli police has a protocol matching pieces of glass to a specific crime scene, as in the event of a car accident. In some cases, for example, when the pieces are too small, their existing methods are not sensitive enough and they fail to match the tiny shards to their origin. This is where we come in. Based on the detection of impurities that contaminated the glass during production, we are able to not only determine the manufacturer and model of the car, but also identify if the glass came from the windshield or side windows. The Israeli police gave us a simulated hit-and-run case. The car suspected to be involved in the accident was found abandoned, its windshield smashed. The owner filed a complaint that his car was stolen, but the police found tiny pieces of broken glass on his bag. The suspect claimed he was on the beach in a specific area contaminated by glass-bottle fragments. In order to verify or discredit the suspect’s story, the police sent us glass samples of two bottles and of the car’s windshield. We analyzed the samples here in our lab and also, to establish credibility, sent space simulations in laboratory and an important article published in the Polymer , which had critical implications for space engineering. Aiding Interpol, Police Forces and Museums Its wide scope of unique, research-yielding abilities makes the particle accelerator laboratory a valuable partner of The Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center in the Negev, as well as the Soreq Nuclear Research Center (SNRC) among others. It is involved in a variety of interesting and diverse research projects which are being conducted in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). For example, the particle accelerator laboratory serves as a mediator between the IAEA and Prof. Daniel Nessim of the Chemistry Department at the Bar-Ilan University and BINA in basic research to use 2D material for quantum computers. “Prof. Nessim synthesizes the various 2D materials and we analyze changes in those materials under ion beam irradiation. The findings also have implications for the use of materials in space detectors and medical devices, both of which are exposed to irradiation,” adds Dr. Girshevitz. Another such example leveraging the particle accelerator laboratory is a new and exciting application of ion beam analysis techniques in the field of forensics. Dr. Girshevitz and her counterparts in the IAEA initiated a worldwide research project utilizing their abilities to accurately define product origins, identify the date of production, and confirm (or deny!) authenticity. About 14 teams throughout the world are 20