After being officially launched on May 22, the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE) today announced that AMOLF group leader Albert Polman has been appointed as Fellow. With the appointment of in total 62 Fellows, the NAE is ready to start fulfilling its mission of stimulating innovation in the Netherlands by offering engineering based solutions for major societal challenges. Innovation is thus used to create societal and economic value. Polman feels very honored to be appointed in the new Netherlands Academy of Engineering. He says, “the foundation of the new academy reflects the value we give to engineering, complementary to scientific research, in order to make impact in the world.”
Many of the NAE Fellows are experts from knowledge organizations, companies and start-ups. They work in different fields, amongst which High Tech Systems and Materials, ICT, Healthcare, Energy, Water Management and Food. Starting next year, NAE will choose 10 new Fellows a year.
Polman and the other Fellows will be inaugurated on Monday, November 13 in the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.
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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