Cooling molecules in the gas phase is important for precision spectroscopy, cold molecule physics,a nd physical chemistry.M easurements of conformational relaxation cross sections shed important light on potential energy surfaces and energy flowwithin amolecule.However,gas-phase conformational cooling has not been previously observed directly.Inthis work, we directly observe conformational dynamics of 1,2propanediol in cold (6 K) collisions with atomic helium using microwave spectroscopya nd buffer-gas cooling. Precise knowledge and control of the collisional environment in the buffer-gas allows us to measure the absolute collision crosssection for conformational relaxation. Several conformers of 1,2-propanediol are investigated and found to have relaxation cross-sections with He ranging from s = 4.7(3.0) 10 À18 cm 2 to s > 510 À16 cm 2 .Our method is applicable to abroad class of molecules and could be used to provideinformation about the potential energy surfaces of previously uninvestigated molecules.The structure of organic molecules is critical to molecular function in biology and chemistry.I np articular,u nderstanding the properties of conformers,which are isomers differing by rotation about one or more chemical bonds,p rovides insight relevant to diverse phenomena such as chemical and catalytic activity, [1,2] thef olding of proteins, [3][4][5][6] behavior of DNA, [1,7] metabolism of sugar, [8,9] and reactions of organic molecules with trapped ions. [10] Conformers may be observed in many environments,u sing ad iverse set of spectroscopic methods.F or example,m olecular beam microwave spectroscopy can provide detailed information about structure and indirect measurement of conformer energies. [11][12][13] Cryogenic matrix isolation spectroscopy can measure dynamics in asolid state environment [14] and ultrafast spectroscopy can measure both structure and reaction dynamics. [15] Each method provides aw indow into certain conformational properties and provides data that can test quantum-chemistry theory calculations.Much of our understanding of gas-phase conformers comes from jet cooled molecular beam spectroscopy and cryogenic matrix isolation spectroscopy experiments.The low ro-vibrational and moving-frame temperature of molecules in as upersonic jet allows for precise,c onformer specific spectroscopy. [16] Although such experiments typically realize arotational and translational temperature of afew Kelvin, in many cases excited conformers with energies of hundreds of Kelvin remain in the sample.T he relaxation (cooling) of conformational degrees of freedom is the conversion of ahigh energy conformer into al ower energy conformer. It can be induced by gas-phase collisions or by couplings to asolid state environment, and typically happens substantially slower than rotational and translational cooling. Quantitative study of relaxation provides key information about conformational interconversion barriers.I nj et cooled molecular beam spectroscopy,c onclusions about the interconversion barriers separating co...