Sam Webb received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University. His is the Lead Staff Scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, specializing in X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. Sam has a strong background in the materials chemistry. During his Ph.D. research, he began to use synchrotron-based techniques to examine the chemistry of contaminants in the environment using non-invasive x-ray analyses. This has led to the development of a strong research program using x-ray fluorescence, x-ray spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction to investigate a wide variety of chemistries in materials that cross many disciplines, including the environmental and Earth sciences, biomedical applications, nuclear forensics, and cultural heritage. He operates the micro-scale x-ray imaging and spectroscopy program at SSRL and manages the science program at four beam lines, where he has designed and built the in-hutch experimental stations and developed intuitive control and analysis programs.