News & updates
Latest developments from our institute
Stay informed about new research results, awards, events, and collaborations across our scientific community.
Marc Serra starts Hyper Smart Matter group
On October 1st Marc Serra will start as tenure track group leader at AMOLF. His Hyper Smart Matter group will be embedded in the Designer Matter research theme at AMOLF. Serra intends to design and build complex materials that manipulate sound waves to process information. These materials will enable a wide variety of new devices, from computers that consume very low power to soft robots that accomplish complex tasks autonomously. Serra aims to simultaneously solve practical problems and understand how physical principles such as the laws of thermodynamics fundamentally limit the energy efficiency of computers.
AMOLF welcomes Wiebke Albrecht
On May 1st, Wiebke Albrecht will start at AMOLF as tenure track group leader. Her research group Hybrid Nanosystems will be embedded in the Designer Matter research theme at AMOLF. With her group, Albrecht will investigate the interaction between different components in complex hybrid nanosystems, such as metal-semiconductor nanostructures. By combining advanced electron microscopy and single particle optical spectroscopy on the same nanoparticle, she will be able to unravel the interplay of morphology and underlying charge and energy transfer processes. The ultimate goal is to develop new concepts of hybrid architectures, responsive to external stimuli, with properties specifically tailored for applications in solar energy harvesting and quantum information processing.
AMOLF 70th year anniversary
This year September 15th is a special day for AMOLF. On this day exactly 70 years ago the Netherlands established AMOLF as a new research institute. At the time the task of the institute, which was called FOM Laboratory for Mass Spectrography, focused on finding out how to separate uranium isotopes. The research concentrated on the construction of a large electromagnetic isotope separator. The first sample (10 mg) of enriched 235U was made in 1953. In 1955 as a result of the Dutch developments, the American Congress decided to ‘declassify’ electromagnetic uranium separation technology.
AMOLF pleased and proud about results portfolio evaluation
AMOLF is very pleased about the conclusions of the committee that evaluated all NWO and KNAW institutes in the past months on their national role and added value to the Dutch scientific landscape. The committee chaired by Prof. Daan Frenkel (Cambridge University) concluded that AMOLF clearly has added value to the Netherlands.
WISE fellow Kristina Ganzinger starts new research group at AMOLF
On September 1st, Kristina Ganzinger will start as tenure track group leader. Ganzinger comes to AMOLF with a WISE fellowship, which is part of an NWO program for excellent female researchers. With her research group Physics of Cellular Interactions, she reinforces the Living Matter department headed by Gijsje Koenderink.
SEP committee refers to ‘the magic of AMOLF’
Every six years the NWO institutes are evaluated by a panel of independent experts according to the so-called Standard Evaluation Protocol (SEP). An international committee chaired by Søren Keiding (Aarhus University, Denmark) came to Amsterdam in October and gave AMOLF the highest score of ‘excellent/world leading’ for all three assessment criteria (scientific quality, societal relevance and viability). AMOLF director Huib Bakker: “The visit was very inspiring and we are proud of getting the highest score for all three criteria. The committee was especially interested in our research model and described AMOLF as “a jewel for fundamental research in the Netherlands.”
Kristina Ganzinger appointed at AMOLF as WISE tenure track group leader
NWO has awarded three talented female scientists a WISE grant. Dr Kristina Ganzinger has received an appointment at the Netherlands Institute for the Physics of Functional Complex Matter AMOLF, Dr Larissa Juschkin at the Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography ARCNL, and Dr Aurora Simionescu at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research SRON. With the WISE program, NWO wants to increase the percentage of female researchers at its institutes.
Said Rodriguez starts new group on Interacting Photons
As of November 1st, Said Rodriguez will be appointed as AMOLF tenure track group leader. Rodriguez will start a new group on Interacting Photons in the Nanophotonics research theme.