Paul Ashby is a Staff Scientist in the Imaging and Manipulation Facility at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Paul received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University and was part of the founding of the Molecular Foundry as a jump-start postdoc. His group specializes in the nanoscale characterization of the functional properties of soft materials through a combination of instrument and technique development. He cofounded Scuba Probe Technologies, an AFM probe manufacturing company specializing in probes for electrochemical and in-situ nanoscale characterization.