Today, the NNV and the Dutch Physics Council (DPC) announced that AMOLF tenure track group leader Wiebke Albrecht is one of the two recipients of the Minerva prize 2021. She shares the prize with Natalia Chepiga (Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft). The Minerva Prize is awarded to an outstanding young female or non-binary physicist in the Netherlands with an overall performance that scientifically excels in any subfield of physics. Both experimental and theoretical scientific physics research are taken into account. Albrecht and Chepiga share the prize money of € 5000.
At AMOLF Albrecht leads the group Hybrid Nanosystems. She investigates the interaction between light and matter at the atomic level. By combining several techniques Albrecht is able to focus on defects at the atomic level and to understand what the consequential effects are on the material properties.
The award ceremony of the first NNV/DPC Minerva Prize, takes place at Physics@Veldhoven 2022.
Read more about the Minerva Prize
The EU Pathfinder project Electron Beams Enhancing Analytical Microscopy (EBEAM) that was recently completed has received a highly positive review of the European Innovation Council (EIC). EBEAM brought together eight European research institutions and companies, including AMOLF, that develop new concepts and instruments combining spectroscopic analysis with electron microscopy.
Organoids are instrumental in improving our understanding of processes that are otherwise hidden inside the body. For instance, these small 3D organs can be used to test medicines on tissue grown from a patient’s own cells. AMOLF researchers carry out unique and complex experiments to follow organoids in time. In order to enable other researchers to benefit from their experiences, they now publish their methods in the prestigious journal Nature Protocols.
This year at the opening of the parliamentary year (Prinsjesdag) Minister of Education, Culture and Science Rianne Letschert wears a spectacular hat and shoulder ornament. Both of them are inspired by the microscopic structures studied by group leader Wim Noorduin (AMOLF/UvA), which look remarkably like tiny flowers under a microscope. Artist and designer Malou Beemer translated these shapes, normally invisible to the naked eye, into wearable art.
Why do brains learn, but rocks do not? Could a material one day adapt to its environment the way a living organism does? AMOLF group leader Dr. Nachi Stern has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to investigate the physical laws of learning, in a project called, “Physical Learning in Dynamical Systems.”
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