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Left to right: Kasper Spoelstra, Luca Gross, Jeroen de Boer, Nika van Nielen, Sergio Picella, Evelijn Akerboom.Kasper Spoelstra (cum laude) Title: Shedding light on dynamic…
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has elected Albert Polman, group leader at AMOLF and professor at the University of Amsterdam, as member of the board as of September 1. In the board, Albert will represent the Domain Natural Sciences and Technology as the successor of Ton van der Steen, whose term ends on that date.
AMOLF group leader Nachi Stern has received an NWO ENW-M1 grant to support his research project on how physical systems can learn. His research could help develop new types of energy efficient hardware for artificial intelligence. The Dutch Research Council (NWO) uses the ENW-M1 grant to fund high quality fundamental research driven by curiosity and important scientific questions.
Four research groups joined forces to reveal the very first moments of a protein’s life in human cells. They found that as soon as an amino acid chain exits from the ribosome, a protein called NAC binds and folds it into the correct structure. This finding fundamentally rewrites our textbook knowledge on how human cells suppress diseases caused by protein folding errors. The researchers published their findings in the journal Molecular Cell on March 23.
A unique opportunity presented itself to researchers in AMOLF’s Soft Robotic Matter group. Two university engineering faculties and a research unit in South Africa asked them to organize a Soft Robotics summer school. From 26 January to 2 February, PhD student Katrien van Riet and her South African students progressed from an introduction to the topic to a final prototype presentation.
On February 26th, NWO announced that AMOLF group leader Ewold Verhagen receives a Vici grant to carry out the project Programmable nonlinear optomechanical metamaterials. The budget available for this research project is 1.5 M€. NWO considers the Vici grant as an incentive for adventurous, talented, and groundbreaking researchers.
Physicists from AMOLF and Leiden University created the first micro-scale metamaterials that can take on specific shapes without external control. This breakthrough paves the way for smart, self-adapting materials. The research team presented the groundbreaking research into micro-scale metamaterials in Nature on February 25.
When a slender object, like a card, column or beam, is compressed, it buckles and curves in one of two directions – as described by the scientist Leonhard Euler in 1744. This behavior prompted researchers in the Mechanical Metamaterials group at AMOLF to ask themselves: can we change this? Together with collaborators from Leiden University, they show how partial cuts in beams can fundamentally alter their buckling (deformation) behavior. The researchers published their findings in the journal Science Advances on February 13, 2026.
In the last year, AMOLF postdoc Achille Joliot uncovered many fascinating details about mycorrhizal fungi. Now, he is able to take his research further as recipient of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. Using the grant, Achille is eager to answer an ecologically important question: how are these fungi able to make sophisticated decisions without a central nervous system. This work will be carried out in the Physics of Behavior group led by Tom Shimizu.
From the crinkle of a candy wrapper to the squish of a metal kitchen scrubber, disordered materials that lack a regular structure share a surprising secret. Despite their differences, they age in a similar way. This is important knowledge to enable production of more durable products, and it helps to explain why some models – like large AI models – sometimes get stuck. Together with international collaborators, researchers from the Mechanical Metamaterials group present their findings in the journal PNAS on February 18.
Most plants on earth rely on symbiotic nutrient exchange with fungal partners to boost their growth, but what are the exact terms of this trade? AMOLF researchers, together with collaborators from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Ecole Normale Superieur de Lyon, discovered that the ‘exchange rate’ for carbon (from plants) and phosphorus (from fungi) remains remarkably constant over time, but depends on the type of plant involved in the exchange. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) on February 6th.
Nienke Reitsma not only has great scientific ideas; she also presents them very well! At the Soft Robotics for Healthcare Network (SoRoH) conference, Nienke received the ‘Best Oral Presentation Prize’ for a talk highlighting her contribution to the Holland Hybrid Heart project.