Davide Iannuzzi presents research during Innovation Convention
FOM workgroup leader Dr. Davide Iannuzzi was under the spotlight during the 'Innovation Convention' held on 5 and 6 December in Brussels where he had a stand explaining his research in the field of 'Fiber-top technology'. His stand was one of two to be honoured with a visit from European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.
The Innovation Congress is a new initiative from the European Commission. Besides interactive panel debates and the 'The award of the Women Innovators Prize', there was an exhibition about innovations developed in Europe. The event attracted more than 1200 participants from the innovation chain, including high-level policy makers, CEOs, universities, banks, venture capitalists, top researchers and innovaters. Of the 400 people who applied to present their innovations on a stand at the convention, fifty were awarded a place including Iannuzzi. During the convention Iannuzzi was accompanied by two of his PhD students, Dhwajal Chavan and Grzegorz Gruca, who have made a significant contribution to the 'Fiber-top technology' research and to the presentation of the research during the congress.
Iannuzzi's research
Davide Iannuzzi is associate professor at VU University Amsterdam, and in 2007 he received a an ERC Starting Independent Research Grant worth 1.8 million euros for his research proposal 'Fiber-top micromachined devices: ideas on the tip of a fiber'. In October he was also awarded an ERC 'Proof of Concept' valorisation grant for his research project 'Small but many: scalability in fiber-top technology', for which he will receive an additional payment of 150,000 euros. This extra grant will enable him to bridge the gap between his ERC-funded research and a commercial product.
This year Iannuzzi also founded his company, Optics11, which develops technology for very small optomechanical sensors. After 5 years of research, this 'fiber-top' technology is ready to make its debut on the market. In April FOM awarded Iannuzzi a valorisation grant to help develop a read-out system for the so-called 'ferrule-top' sensor. By means of special valorisation projects FOM encourages the utilisation of knowledge from the scientific research it funds within the university workgroups.
Further information
For further information please contact Dr. Davide Iannuzzi, telephone number +31 20 598 75 77 or visit http://www.nat.vu.nl/CondMat/iannuzzi/.
Click here for further information about FOM Valorisation projects for university workgroups.