Cryan is an investigator with the Stanford PULSE Institute at SLAC, while Marsden is an associate professor of pediatrics and of bioengineering at Stanford.

The prestigious awards provide at least $2.5 million over five years in support of their work in understanding photochemical reactions and improving accelerator beams.

Hitting molecules with two photons of light at once set off unexpected processes that were captured in detail with SLAC’s X-ray laser. Scientists say this new approach should work for bigger and more complicated molecules, too, allowing new insights into molecular behavior.

Called XLEAP, the new method will provide sharp views of electrons in chemical processes that take place in billionths of a billionth of a second and drive crucial aspects of life.