News & updates
Latest developments from our institute
Stay informed about new research results, awards, events, and collaborations across our scientific community.
Atom-thin materials: handle with care… and cling film
As materials become thinner – now reaching a thickness of single atoms – it has become ever more difficult to create large enough sheets of these materials and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. Recent work by a broad Amsterdam-based team of scientists, published in the journal ACS Nano, presents a new technique that solves this problem – using an unexpected material that can be found in any home kitchen.
Two Veni grants awarded for projects on immune system activation and twisted perovskites
Two researchers have been awarded Veni grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for three-year postdoctoral research projects at AMOLF. Dr. Megan Farrell will conduct her project on how immune cells respond to signals from the tissue around them. Dr. Kunal Datta will investigate how new optical and electronic properties emerge when semiconductor crystals twist against each other.
AMOLF researchers with granted NWO XS projects
Last week, three AMOLF researchers learned that their research projects had been awarded funding through the Open Competition Domain Science-XS call. They are Dr. Susanna Eli (Biophysics, Quant. Dev. Biology & Physics of Cellular Interactions), Dr. Sarah Gillespie (Nanoscale Solar Cells), and Dr. Sergio Rey Puentes (Hybrid Nanosystems).
Sustainable Energy Materials research community meets at symposium
On June 19, physicists and chemists in the Netherlands came together to learn about recent discoveries on light for driving and monitoring chemical reactions. Light is a powerful and sustainable tool for steering such reactions with precision. AMOLF organized the bi-annual symposium at Amsterdam Science Park.
ERC Proof of Concept to develop platform for computation using light
Professor Bruno Ehrler and Dr. Agustin Alvarez from the Hybrid Solar Cells group receive an ERC grant from the European Research Council. The researchers will develop a new hardware platform for processing information directly where it is sensed. This approach reduces the need to transfer data to separate processing units, as is typically done on conventional computers. The project ‘Vision with Ionic Spatiotemporal Perovskite Arrays’ (VISTA) is funded with €150,000.
The arrow of time in light
Research in the Interacting Photons group shows that the rules governing how light evolves over time are different from what we might expect. This is not only surprising; its implications could also be significant for the development of energy-efficient information processing systems. The researchers published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.
‘Autonomy’ takes center stage at symposium
On June 11, researchers gathered at the Autonomous Matter Symposium to discuss the concept of autonomy from different perspectives. Professor Jay Groves (UC Berkeley) argued that autonomy may not begin with decision-making, but with amplification. Professor Elisabetta Chicca (University of Groningen) offered a complementary perspective from the field of neuromorphic engineering.
Former AMOLF group leader Wim de Jeu passed away
Sadly, on June 3rd, 2026, former AMOLF group leader Wim de Jeu passed away. He will be remembered by many current and former AMOLF colleagues.