News & updates
Latest developments from our institute
Stay informed about new research results, awards, events, and collaborations across our scientific community.
Climate envoy visits AMOLF to learn how fungal networks contribute to CO2 drawdown and storage underground
On January 8th, a delegation led by the Netherlands’ Climate Envoy, Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, visited the AMOLF lab of Tom Shimizu. Researchers in Tom’s group are developing new robotic imaging technologies to study fungal networks. Over the past few years, Tom and his collaborator Toby Kiers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) have made significant progress in understanding how these networks function.
Celebrating 75 Years of AMOLF: reflections from our Director and Institute Manager
With the year ending, AMOLF reflects on a festive year in which it celebrated its 75th anniversary. AMOLF director Huib Bakker and institute manager Paula van Tijn share their memories and thoughts.
AMOLF opens upgraded NanoLab and says farewell to Hans Zeijlemaker
On November 21, researchers, staff, and guests gathered at AMOLF to celebrate two significant milestones: the opening of the newly upgraded NanoLab cleanroom and the farewell of a beloved colleague, Hans Zeijlemaker, after an impressive 44-year career at the institute.
AMOLF celebrates 75 years of magical times with network members
On November 12, AMOLF celebrated its 75th anniversary with its network partners at the iconic Felix Meritis in Amsterdam. The celebration drew together a diverse crowd of research collaborators, industry partners, policymakers, AMOLF staff and other esteemed relations. This gathering provided an opportunity to reflect on the institute’s achievements, and exchange ideas about its evolving role in the future of science and technology.
SEP Committee report
Every six years the NWO institutes are evaluated by an external international committee according to the so-called Strategy Evaluation Protocol (SEP). In December 2023, an international committee chaired by Professor Hans Hilgenkamp (University of Twente) visited AMOLF. The final evaluation report has recently been shared with NWO and AMOLF. The committee is very impressed by the excellent research at AMOLF and the collaborative and inclusive work environment.
AMOLF welcomes new group leader Menachem Stern
On August 1st Menachem (Nachi) Stern will start as tenure track group leader at AMOLF. He will lead the Learning Machines group, which will be shared between the autonomous matter and information in matter research themes at AMOLF. Stern’s research efforts will focus on the physics of learning in natural and synthetic systems. Such learning machines can adopt desirable properties and functions given real world examples and environments. Leveraging the advances of statistical learning theory in physical machines, physical learning is a promising bridge between computational machine learning and biology, and enables the development of new classes of bio-inspired smart metamaterials that adapt in-situ to users’ needs.
AMOLF wins NNV Diversity Award 2022
At the annual NWO Physics conference in Veldhoven, AMOLF has been awarded with the NNV Diversity Award. The NNV Diversity prize is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society to the physics institute that demonstrates the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). AMOLF is proud to receive this award and sees the award as an encouragement to continue implementing its inclusion and diversity plans.
SolarNL: major consortium proposes large scale production of solar panels in the Netherlands
SolarNL is a national research, innovation and industrial investment program to bring back and stimulate photovoltaics manufacturing to the Netherlands/Europe. It has been submitted as a proposal for the National Economic Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds) in February 2023. The consortium consists of a large group of public and private parties, one of which is AMOLF that contributes its expertise in fundamental photovoltaics research.