Special Seminar · Sendai
Experimental Evidence of a Liquid-Liquid Critical Point in Water; Origin of Thermodynamic Anomalies Explained
A new perspective on familiar water.
A quarter-century of questioning water’s structure and properties. Join Anders Nilsson, a leading figure in modern water research, in Sendai.
PerspectiveWhy this seminar
What kind of liquid is water? Over the past quarter-century, Anders Nilsson has helped reshape this fundamental question through advanced X-ray experiments, connecting the structure of hydrogen bonds with fluctuations in supercooled water, liquid–liquid transitions and a critical point.
This seminar offers an opportunity to hear that scientific journey and its latest findings directly from one of its leading figures. We will explore how synchrotron radiation and X-ray lasers have made previously inaccessible states of water observable, and how sustained debate and new experiments continue to transform our understanding.
LectureThe lecture
Water’s unusual properties become especially pronounced on cooling. One proposed explanation is a liquid–liquid transition ending at a critical point. Yet the rapid formation of ice has made the relevant region exceptionally difficult to investigate.
Professor Nilsson will discuss how X-ray lasers access deeply supercooled liquid water, presenting experimental evidence for a Widom line, a liquid–liquid transition and a critical point. The lecture connects these findings to water’s thermodynamic anomalies and fluctuations extending toward ambient conditions.
SpeakerAbout the speaker
Anders Nilsson
Stockholm University, Sweden
Anders Nilsson earned his PhD in physics at Uppsala University in 1989, in the research environment established by Nobel laureate Kai Siegbahn. He spent approximately 15 years as a professor of Photon Science at Stanford University before returning to Sweden in 2014.
His research brings X-ray spectroscopy and scattering to questions in water and aqueous solutions, surface bonding and reactions, catalysis and ultrafast science.
His honors include the American Physical Society’s Earle K. Plyler Prize (2024)[6], the Lindbomska Award of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Oscar Award of Uppsala University, the Shirley Award and the Humboldt Research Award. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Technical University of Denmark.
InformationPractical information
- Date & time
- Wednesday, 25 November 2026, 13:30–14:30 JST
- Venue
- Lecture Room 2, Aobayama Commons, Tohoku University, Sendai
- Language
- English
OrganizersOrganizers & contact
- Planned host
International Center for Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Smart (SRIS), Tohoku University - Co-organizer
Center for Agricultural and Life Sciences using Synchrotron Light (A-Sync), Tohoku University
Susumu Yamamoto: susumu@tohoku.ac.jp
Yoshihisa Harada: harada@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Further reading & sources
- Nilsson Group, SLAC / Stanford — Water research
- SPring-8 — Collaborative research on the structure of water (2008; Japanese)
- SLAC — Scientists Take First Dip into Water’s Mysterious “No Man’s Land” (2014)
- Science — Liquid–liquid transition study (2020)
- Stockholm University — Experimental discovery of a new critical point in water (2026)
- American Physical Society — Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy
- Stockholm University — Anders Nilsson, profile