Vinod Subramaniam new director FOM Institute AMOLF
Professor Vinod Subramaniam has been appointed as the new director of FOM Institute AMOLF with effect from 1 September 2013. Subramaniam is currently scientific director of the institute of biomedical technology MIRA of the University of Twente and leads the nanobiophysics research group there. Subramaniam will retain his professorship at University of Twente. Subramaniam succeeds professor Albert Polman. After seven years as director, Polman announced at the start of this year that he now wants to fully concentrate on the further expansion of the FOM focus group 'Light management in new photovoltaic materials' at AMOLF and on the leadership of his own research group.
FOM director Wim van Saarloos is very happy with Subramaniam's arrival at FOM: "He can link AMOLF's two lines of research, nanophotonics and biophysics, and he has experience with public-private partnerships. That is a highly promising combination!".
Subramaniam (1967) has specialised in protein biophysics and functional imaging at the nanometre scale. With the help of optical and other techniques, he investigates the molecular biophysics of protein interactions on single-molecule level. His research interests include the aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein, which probably plays an important role in the development of Parkinson's disease.
Career
Subramaniam studied electrical engineering at Cornell University and gained his doctorate in applied physics from the University of Michigan in 1996 for his research into the application of laser spectroscopy for protein research. He then held various positions including a period at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. In 2002 he left for the United Kingdom to become a senior researcher at AstraZeneca. In 2004 he became a professor at the University of Twente. In addition, Subramaniam is extraordinary professor of Nanoscale Imaging at Radboud University Nijmegen and senior fellow and guest professor at the University of Konstanz in Germany.
Since May 2012 he has been the director of MIRA, the institute for biomedical technology at the University of Twente. At MIRA the interaction within the triangle research (fundamental and applied), practice (clinical basis and demand) and entrepreneurship takes centre stage. At FOM, Subramaniam leads a FOM researchprogramme, since 2009 he has chaired the advisory committee Physics of Life and since 2006 he has been a member of the FOm/f committee. Subramaniam is also involved in NanoNextNL as programme director and is the co-founder of the University of Twente spin-off Ostendum B.V., which focuses on rapid and quantitative virus diagnostics based on optical interferometry.
FOM institute AMOLF
AMOLF's mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on novel, strategically important complex molecular and materials systems, in partnership with Dutch academia and industry. AMOLF's research focuses on two main themes:
- nanophotonics; studying light at extremely small length and time scales, plasmon optics, optical metamaterials and light forces; applications in microscopy, LED light sources and more efficient solar cells
- biophysics; studying biomolecular dynamics and interactions, supramolecular structures and active biomaterials, and the design of biomolecular networks; applications in food technology, artificial tissues and biomedical imaging.
Note for editors
For further information you can contact:
FOM Foundation: Gabby Zegers, +31 (0)30 600 12 22
FOM Institute AMOLF: Erny Lammers, +31 (0)20 754 74 08
University of Twente: Bertyl Lankhaar +31 (0)53 489 22 10