Catalysts are the workhorses of industrial chemistry, accounting for 85% of chemical products, such as artificial fertilizer and precursors for plastics. Temperature is a key control parameter in any catalytic reaction and reactors are typically heated using fossil-fuel derived heat. It would be more energy efficient and sustainable to only apply heat where the chemistry … Read more
Plasmonic nano-antennas can confine and manipulate light at the nanoscale, which can be applied in a wide variety of applications such as molecular sensing, biomedical imaging, and light-driven catalysis. The use of simulation software can help to model the nanostructures before we fabricate them, but it can be time-consuming and complex to find the optimal … Read more
When a soil is subject to low temperatures, the freezing of water can lead to an upward forces and the deformation of the soil with the growth of ice. This phenomena, called frost heaving can lead to catastrophic destruction of roads or buildings in cold regions as shown in figure above. The most obvious explanation … Read more
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva seeks to answer fundamental questions about elementary particles and our universe. Protons or heavy ions are collided at nearly the speed of light to study the tiniest building blocks of nature. To increase the amount of data taken by the LHC experiments in the future, many … Read more
The Standard Model of physics is still far from complete: there is an unexplained asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe, gravity is not included and dark matter and dark energy are not understood. Quantum sensors have become strong tools to search for effects stemming from physics beyond the Standard Model. I am searching for 1-2 … Read more
At the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) we carry out exciting fundamental physics research at the highest possible level with relevance to key technologies in nanolithography. We contribute to the production of ever smarter and smaller electronics, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of our fundamental insight into the workings of nature. … Read more
3D printing has proven to be a game-changer in space exploration and has revolutionized the way astronauts and space agencies approach problems in space. With 3D printing, it is possible to produce complex components and parts on demand, reducing the need for large inventories and saving space and weight on spacecraft. It also enables the … Read more
Can we use robots to study biological materials like tissues? We think we can! We are developing experimental and computational platforms to study the dense population of moving cells using robots. To this end, we program the robots about the size of a 2-Euro coin to move like cells. We then explore how robots move … Read more
When plant face different light conditions they have to adapt, sometimes the light is too strong and they get a “sun burn” which destroys the biochemical machinery for photosynthesis. If the light is too weak they “starve” because photosynthesis does not work well. Plants seem like very calm organisms, but if you zoom into their … Read more
Active Matter refers to a class of physical systems made up of self-propelled, interacting entities, such as living organisms or synthetic particles, that exhibit collective behavior and can produce forces and fluxes at the macroscopic scale. Active matter systems can generate directed motion, spontaneous pattern formation, and display emergent properties that are not present in … Read more