News & updates
Latest developments from our institute
Stay informed about new research results, awards, events, and collaborations across our scientific community.
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.
Jesse Slim wins the Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa thesis award 2023
The winner of the Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa physics thesis prize 2023 is Jesse Slim. He carried out his PhD research in the group of Ewold Verhagen (AMOLF) and defended his thesis cum laude at Eindhoven University of Technology in March 2023.
LMPV wins Team Science Award
The team of group leaders leading AMOLF’s Light Management in Photovoltaic Materials (LMPV) program has won the NWO Team Science Award 2023. With the award NWO rewards the most inspiring and successful team of researchers from various disciplinary fields, who jointly take on a scientific challenge in which their individual strengths and expertise demonstrably reinforce each other. The LMPV team will receive the prize money amounting 50.000 euro to be spend on team related activities.
Kristina Ganzinger connected to Oncode Institute as Junior Investigator
AMOLF group leader Kristina Ganzinger has been selected by the Oncode Institute to join as Junior Investigator. The institute selected 10 junior investigators out of 72 applicants. The researchers were selected based on the quality of their science, expertise and potential to contribute to the mission of Oncode Institute: to accelerate breakthrough discoveries and speed up their translation into new diagnostics and treatments for cancer patients. Ganzinger will also continue her work at AMOLF leading the group Physics of Cellular Interactions.
Ewold Verhagen elected as Optica Fellow
Optica (formerly OSA) has elected AMOLF group leader Ewold Verhagen as Fellow. Optica elected Verhagen for “outstanding contributions to nanophotonics and optomechanics, and to the understanding of photonic systems with broken spatiotemporal symmetries.” Optica Fellows are selected based on several factors, including outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering and service to Optica and the community. Candidates for Fellow Membership are nominated by current Optica Fellow members.
Albert Polman appointed as Fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE)
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.”
Esther Alarcón Lladó appointed professor at the University of Amsterdam
Dr. Esther Alarcón Lladó has been appointed professor by special appointment in Nano-electrochemistry and Renewable Energy Materials at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The chair was established on behalf of the Foundation for the Advancement of Atomic and Molecular Physics (‘Stichting tot bevordering van de Atoom- en Molecuulfysica’) with the Van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) of the UvA.
Rubicon for Andrea Cordaro
Former AMOLF Phd student Andrea Cordaro receives an NWO Rubicon grant to start his research project ‘Mathematics at the speed of light’ at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the United States.