Five ERC Consolidator Grants for physics research
FOM workgroup leaders Prof.dr. Erik Bakkers, Prof.dr.ir. Alexander Brinkman and Prof.dr. Jeroen Cornelissen, FOM project leader Prof.dr.ir. Jacco Snoeijer and Prof.dr. Florian Schreck have received a European Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). It involves a sum of maximum 2,75 million euros.
The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded for the first time this year. It is the third major individual European research grant from the ERC, in addition to the Starting Grant (a maximum of 2 million euros) and the Advanced Grant (a maximum of 3,5 million euros). The Consolidator Grant is intended for talented, outstanding researchers with seven to twelve years experience since the completion of their PhD research.
Erik Bakkers
The research of Erik Bakkers focuses on making high-purity, thin nanowires: lines of material with a width of several tens of nanometers. With his grant of 2,7 million euros, Bakkers intends to use new combinations of materials to make these nanowires. He hopes in this way to discover new fundamental properties. Bakkers carries out his research in the Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics group of the Applied Physics department at Eindhoven University of Technology and he is part-time professor in the Quantum Transport group of Prof.dr. Leo Kouwenhouwen at Delft University of Technology.
Alexander Brinkman
Alexander Brinkman and his team will examine whether non-Abelian quasiparticles can be realized with a combination of superconductors and topological insulators. For this kind of particles is predicted that the quantum mechanical wave function is dependant on the order in which particles are interchanged, the basis for topological quantum computation. Alexander Brinkman is Professor of Quantum Transport in Matter at the MESA + Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente.
Jeroen Cornelissen
Jeroen Cornelissen has received the grant for his research into protein cages as mimics of bacterial nano compartments. "This entails us working on the smallest test tubes in the world", says Cornelissen. "The research on the nano scale focuses on understanding the chemical reactions of protein cages from viruses and virus proteins, which revolves around interactions in living cells. I am extremely happy with this grant. It is a confirmation of the department's fine work.” Jeroen Cornelissen is department chair of Biomolecular NanoTechnology at the University of Twente.
Jacco Snoeijer
What happens when liquid droplets come into contact with fragile nano structures or soft materials? With the grant of two million euros, Jacco Snoeijer will examine at the molecular level how the surface tension of water droplets affects soft materials and how this influences the fluid flow on a macroscopic scale. This also provides new insights into the surface properties of materials such as hydrogels and elastomers. Jacco Snoeijer is active at the University of Twente within the Physics of Fluids department and at Eindhoven University of Technology in Mesoscopic Transport Phenomena.
Florian Schreck
Florian Schrek does research into the quantum mechanics of so-called many-body systems. These systems exhibit behaviour that cannot simply be reduced to the formulas that describe the behaviour of the individual particles. Schreck has been awarded the Consolidator Grant, worth 1.8 million euros, for his research into quantum many-body systems. He will carry out the entire of his ERC project at the University of Amsterdam at the research focus area 'Quantum Matter and Quantum Information'. The professorship to which Schreck has been appointed could be established with support from the Sector Plan Physics and Chemistry that recently facilitated a re-profiling of research in these disciplines at a national level. Schrek is professor of Experimental Quantum Physics at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam.
More information
Erik Bakkers +31 (0)40 247 51 70
Alexander Brinkman +31 (0)53 489 31 22
Jeroen Cornelissen +31 (0)53 489 43 80
Jacco Snoeijer +31 (0)53 489 30 85
Florian Schreck +31 (0)20 525 26 95