News & updates
Latest developments from our institute
Stay informed about new research results, awards, events, and collaborations across our scientific community.
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.
AMOLF and Fraunhofer ISE start cooperation on metamaterials
AMOLF and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have started a strategic cooperation in the field of metamaterials for optical applications. In the project “Metasurfaces for Energy Efficient Devices” (MEEt), the partners are developing metamaterials for solar cells, LEDs and optical sensors and the processes for their production. The joint project will run for three years and is funded by the Fraunhofer International Cooperation and Networking (ICON) program.
Huib Bakker re-installed
AMOLF director Huib Bakker has been re-installed by the NWO-I Foundation Board for a period of five years.
Cum laude for Federica Burla
On Friday, June 19th Federica Burla defended her PhD thesis Tailoring Extracellular Matrix Mechanics online at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Burla obtained the cum laude degree for her doctorate research. This degree is reserved for the top 5% of the students. Gijsje Koenderink was the promotor. Until recently, Burla was a PhD student in the AMOLF research group of Gijsje Koenderink who left AMOLF to become full professor at TU Delft.
Rubicon grant for Hugo Doeleman
Former PhD student Hugo Doeleman has received a Rubicon grant from NWO to carry out his research proposal at ETH Zurich. At AMOLF Doeleman was a group member of the Resonant Nanophotonics group led by Femius Koenderink. His doctoral research was done in close collaboration with Ewold Verhagen (AMOLF) and Robert Spreeuw (UvA). Doeleman left AMOLF after defending his thesis ‘Hybrid Resonators for Light Trapping and Emission Control’, for which he obtained a cum laude degree.
Bela Mulder appointed at Utrecht University
As of 1 January, Bela Mulder (Theory of Biomolecular Matter) has been appointed Professor by Special Appointment in Theoretical Biophysics at Utrecht University.
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.