Two more ERC consilidator grants for physics research
FOM workgroup leader Prof.dr. Davide Iannuzzi and Dr.ir. Johan Padding have received a European Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). It involves a sum of maximum 2,75 million euro.
Davide Iannuzzi
The programme of Iannuzzi develops along three research projects, each addressing one of the three most relevant scales in life sciences: cells, tissues, and organs. In the first project, the research team will design and test a new optomechanical probe to investigate how a prolonged mechanical load on a brain cell of a living animal may trigger alterations in its Central Nervous System. With the second research project, the researchers will develop an optomechanical tactile instrument that can assess how subsurface tissues deform in response to a mechanical stroke – a study that will hopefully find application in tissue classification. For the third project, they will deliver an acousto-optical gas trace sensors so compact that can penetrate inside the lungs; should they succeed, it is probably possible to investigate the origin and development of certain pulmonary life threatening diseases. Each project represents an opportunity to open a new field, where optics and micromechanics are combined to extend our senses well beyond their natural limits. Iannuzzi is professor at the VU University in Amsterdam.
Johan Padding
Padding will use the grant for fundamental research on the behavior of non-spherical particle flows in fluidized bed reactors. In a fluidized bed reactor particles are fluidized, which makes them behave like a fluid or a gas. This promotes reactions and the distribution of the reaction heat. A large part of the materials and chemicals used in the daily life are produced in such reactors, but the design and construction of these reactors is very costly. Therefore it is important to be able to predict the flow behavior in the reactor, before it is built. With the ERC Consolidator grant Johan Padding will employ six PhDs who will focus on the development of computer models for fluid flow of non-spherical particles, because these models hardly exist. In addition, they will carry out laboratory experiments to test the accuracy of these models. Padding is employed at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
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Davide Iannuzzi
Johan Padding