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Stoof and colleagues observe preformed electron-hole Cooper pairs

Henk Stoof, Marijn Versteegh, Arjon van Lange, and Jaap Dijkhuis report the observation of preformed electron-hole Cooper pairs in a semiconductor in a new article in Physical Review B. More info in an article on the FOM website.

Stefan Vandoren appointed to full professor and new ITP scientific director

As per May 1st 2012, Stefan Vandoren has been appointed to full professor at the ITP. Starting the same date, he is also the new ITP scientific director.

Vici-grant awarded to René van Roij

A NWO Vici Grant has been awarded to René van Roij. More info at the NWO and FOM websites.

Veni-grant awarded to Wessel Valkenburg

Dr. Wessel Valkenburg, a former ITP master student, who wrote his Master Thesis under supervision of Tomislav Prokopec, was awarded an NWO Veni grant for his proposal "Het universum: je weet niet wat je ziet!". More information (in Dutch) can be found at the NWO and UU websites. Dr. Valkenburg is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the RWTH in Aachen.

Liquid Matter Conference 2011 poster prize for Niels Boon

The poster “Blue energy” from ion adsorption and electrode charging in sea- and river water by Niels Boon, and co-authored by René van Roij, was chosen out of 800 entries as one of three poster prize winners at the 2011 Liquid Matter Conference.

Paul van der Schoot nominated for Huibregtsen Award 2011

Paul van der Schoot and his colleague Prof. Cor Koning (TUe) have been nominated for the 2011 Huibregtsen Award for their research project "Replacement for a rare metal with an extra bonus". The award ceremony will be held at the 12th Science and Society Night on November 7.

Renate Loll appointed as new ITP scientific director

Succeeding Henk Stoof as ITP Scientific Director, Renate Loll has been appointed as per September 1st.

Henk Stoof succeeds Ieke Moerdijk as Vice-Dean of Research

As per September 1st Henk Stoof has been appointed Vice-Dean of Research of the Science Faculty, succeeding Ieke Moerdijk, who seized the opportunity to start his own research group in Nijmegen with both hands. Read an interview with the new vice-dean here (in Dutch.)

Prof. Bob Evans to teach 2011 Kramers course on Density Functional Theory: Classical and Quantum

Professor Bob Evans (Bristol) has been appointed as ITP Kramers Professor for the period September-December 2011. During his stay at the ITP he will teach a course on the subject of Density Functional Theory: Classical and Quantum.

Gerard 't Hooft appointed as Distinguished Professor

As per July 1st 2011 Gerard 't Hooft has been appointed Distinguished Professor by the Executive Board of Utrecht University. More info here.

Paul van der Schoot in Nature Nanotechnology

The article Controlling Electrical Percolation in Multi-Component Carbon Nanotube Dispersions by Paul van der Schoot et al. was published in Nature Nanotechnology on April 10 2011. Read the press report here.

Golden Year for Theoretical Physics

2010 turned out to be a Golden Year for the Institute for Theoretical Physics, whose members have been able to attract in excess of 6 Mio € of external research grants from NWO, FOM and the ERC, highlighting the continued appreciation for the ITP's program of innovative, fundamental research.
In conjunction with the upcoming new professorships made available through the national Sector Plan Physics and Chemistry, this will provide new and exciting opportunities for research, teaching and outreach in the years ahead.

Lomonosov Large Gold Medal awarded Gerard 't Hooft

 The Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded Large Gold Medals to Gerard 't Hooft and Spartak Beliayev. The Lomonosov Large Gold Medal, - the top award of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was instituted in 1956. Two medals are awarded every year, one to a Russian researcher, and the other one, to a foreign scientist.

Shell awards stipends to ITF Master Students

This year's award ceremony for top masters students in Theoretical Physics took place on Dec 8 at the new Shell Technology Centre in Amsterdam. As a reward for their excellent performance, eleven students nationwide, among them ITP's Ivano Lodato, Misha Veldhoen, Yang Lu and Wilke van der Schee, received a stipend worth €2000,- each from the hands of Shell Chief Scientist Dr. Dirk Smit. In his speech, Smit highlighted the future career possibilities Shell offers to highly skilled PhD students trained in Theoretical Physics, and his company's stake in the continued excellence of their education. The award forms part of a joint initiative with the Landelijke Onderzoekschool Theoretische Natuurkunde (LOTN), whose Scientific Director Prof. Renate Loll of the ITP also spoke at the event.

NWO Veni grant awarded to Igor Khavkine

 Igor Khavkine, who has been working at the ITP as a postdoc since January 2009, has been awarded a three year Veni-grant by NWO, for his proposal What is quantum space-time geometry?

Prof. Morais Smith new fellow UCU

Prof. Cristiane Morais Smith was appointed the new Fellow to represent Math and Physics from the Science Faculty in the University College and therefore addresses all staff members in the entire Physics & Astronomy Department and Mathematics Department.

NWO Veni grant awarded to Nabamita Banerjee

 Nabamita Banerjee has been awarded a three year Veni-grant by NWO. Nabamita, who currently works at the ITP as a postdoc, will start her Veni project Black Holes - Fundamentals and Applications at the ITP in september 2010.

Exhibition on Gerard 't Hooft at Utrecht University Museum

The University Museum is hosting an exhibition on Gerard 't Hooft and topics in theoretical physics, from April 24th 2010 until May 8th 2011.

FOM Projectruimte 2009 grants awarded to ITP members

 In addition to Bernard de Wit's project Statistical versus thermodynamic black hole entropy, which was awarded in December 2009, the FOM Projectruimte proposals Spin drag in Bose gases, by Peter van der Straten, Rembert Duine and Henk Stoof, and Ironing out the quantum wrinkles of spacetime, by Renate Loll have been granted by FOM. More info here.

ERC Advanced Grant awarded to Bernard de Wit

The European Research Council has awarded an advanced Research Grant Bernard de Wit for his proposal "Supersymmetry: a window to non-perturbative physics". Under the EU's 7th Research Framework Programme, the ERC supports projects aiming at making important discoveries in any domain. More info here.

NWO Vici grants awarded to Gleb Arutyunov and Stefan Vandoren

Two members of the ITP staff were awarded a NWO Vici grant 2010; Gleb Arutyunov for his proposal "IJkvelden uit kwantumsnaren", and Stefan Vandoren for his proposal "De meetkunde van de supersnaren". NWO press release here.

NewSpin Confererence in the snow

At the start of January Rembert Duine and Henk Stoof organized a conference called "NewSpin: Spin Manipulation in Condensed Matter and Cold Atoms" on behalf of the Institute for Theoretical Physics. In this conference national and international experts on the subject of Spintronics, Magnetism and Cold Atoms were brought together. This interdisciplinary character proved succesful, judging by the many enthusiastic responses and the large amount of participants (about 80), who defied the snow to come to Utrecht and filled the "Planetenzaal" in the Minnaert building to the brim. The program consisted of  20 talks by invited speakers, a postersession and a conference dinner in "Stadskasteel Oudaen". Because of the great succes of the conference options for a follow-up conference are now being explored. More info here.

Superfluidity in the News

NWO reports on Koos Gubbels' PhD-research on Superfluidity on their website.

Koos Gubbels wins 2010 NTvN-award

Koos Gubbels is one of the winners of the 14th NTvN-awards. This annual award is given by the Dutch Magazine for Physics for the best article by a PhD-student about his PhD-research in the field of Physics.

2009

Renate Loll appears in "National Wetenschapquiz"

On December 13, prof.dr. Renate Loll appeared on Dutch public television in one of the episodes of the "Nationale Wetenschapsquiz". The episode is available for viewing here. (Prof. Loll appears at 19.19 min.)

NWO Veni grant awarded to Shun-Pei Miao

Shun-Pei Miao has been awarded a three year Veni-grant by NWO, for her proposal "Exploring Quantum Effects from Inflation." Shun-Pei, who currently works at the CECS institute in Chili, is expected to start her Veni project at the ITP in september 2010.

ITP Master student Bas Fagginger Auer wins NWO GQT student prize

The 2008/2009 GQT student prize for the NWO-Research cluster Geometry and Quantum Theory has been awarded to former ITP master student Bas Fagginger Auer for his Master Thesis "Spatially homogeneous universes" supervised by R. Loll.

"Spin Drag in Noncondensed Bose Gases" by Rembert Duine and Henk Stoof discussed in Viewpoint Commentary in Physics

The paper "Spin Drag in Noncondensed Bose Gases" by R.A. Duine and H.T.C. Stoof was published in Physical Review Letters 103, 170401 (2009), and also selected as Editor's Suggestion and discussed in a Viewpoint Commentary in Physics. More info can be found here.

Prof.dr. Renate Loll appointed as Perimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chair

The Perimeter Institute, based in Canada, has appointed Renate Loll as a Distinguished Research Chair. Perimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chairs spend extended research visits at Perimeter each year, becoming part of Perimeter’s scientific community while retaining permanent positions at their home institutions.

Shell Stipends awarded to three ITF Master students

Marcin Dukalski, Stijn van Tongeren and Chris Wever have been awarded Shell Stipends for Theoretical Physics. With these stipends, worth € 2000,-, and awarded each year to the best master students in theoretical physics, Shell intends to draw attention to future career possibilities for graduates in international companies such as Shell. All three students currently hold PhD positions, Stijn and Chris at the ITF and Marcin at the TU Delft.

Prof.dr. Paul van der Schoot appointed by Stichting Lorentzfonds

Prof. Dr. P.A.M.M. van der Schoot has been appointed to the adjunct chair “Theoretical Physics” at the ITF by the Stichting Lorentzfonds starting July 1st 2009. This chair was created by the Stichting Lorentzfonds to promote Theoretical Physics in the Netherlands.
Dr. Paul van der Schoot works at the Theory of Polymers and Soft Matter Group at the Faculty of Technical Physics at Eindhoven University. He is a theoretician with a broad interest and a strong background in statistical fysics, fysical chemistry and biofysics. He specializes in the application of statistical theory to chemically complex soft and biomatter. Among other things, Prof. Van der Schoot will be teaching extracurricular classes on the topics of self-organization of macromolecules and viruses.

Utrecht-Asia Visiting Professorships Grant 2009 awarded to proposal by prof.dr. Eric Laenen

Prof.dr. Eric Laenen has been awarded the Utrecht-Asia Visiting Professorships grant 2009 for his proposal to bring prof.dr. Rohini M. Godbole from Bangalore, India to Utrecht University. This means prof.dr. Godbole will come to Utrecht in 2010 as a visiting professor to contribute to the post-graduate research and teaching of the ITF by giving lectures and/or masterclasses.

Gleb Arutyunov wins Journal of Physics A Best Paper Prize 2009

The paper The off-shell symmetry algebra of the light-cone AdS5 × S5 superstring, by Gleb Arutyunov, Sergey Frolov, Jan Plefka and Marija Zamaklar has won the 2009 Journal of Physics A Best Paper Prize. Papers were assessed by the criteria of novelty, achievement, potential impact and presentation.  

University day 28 March 2009

Prof. Bernard de Wit and prof. Thomas Peitzmann (Subatomic Physics UU) will deliver the morning presentation at the Utrecht University day on particle physics and the LHC. More information can be found here.

 ITP staff participates in new FOM programs
Dr. Rene van Roij and Dr. Rembert Duine participate in FOM programs that were granted recently. Van Roij takes part in the program "Control over functional nanoparticle solids" led by Prof. Van Blaaderen (Utrecht). Duine is part of the consortium led by Prof. Rasing (Nijmegen) that aims at "Controlling spin dynamics in magnetic nanostructures". More information can be found here.

 FOM Raad van Bestuur

Prof. Renate Loll has been appointed as of 1 March 2009 as member of the FOM Raad van Bestuur.


2008

Descartes-Huygens award for dr. Stefan Vandoren - 2 December 2008

Stefan Vandoren has been awarded the Descartes-Huygens award. This award enables him to conduct research for 6 months in France.

Humboldt-Forschungspreis for prof. Henk van Beijeren - 12 November 2008

Prof. Henk van Beijeren has been awarded the Humboldt-Forschungs award for his achievements in physics research and education. This award will enable him to conduct research at a German institution for one year.

Shell stipendia for nine dutch Master students - 22 October 2008

On Thursday, 16 October 2008 four ITP students (Ted van der Aalst, Wouter Beugeling, Kiril Hristov and Martijn Mink - not on picture) received a stipendium from Shell. More info can be found here.
 
 

Daniele Oriti receives Sofja Kovalevskaja Award - 13 October 2008

Daniele Oriti has been awarded the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award 2008 for his poject 'Quantising gravity: new insights into the fundamental nature of space and time and the early universe'. With this award he can build up his own research group at MPI, Potsdam. More information can be found here.

Symposium in honour of Henk van Beijeren - September 2008

On 28 November a symposium 'Statistical Physics out of Equilibrium' will be held in honour of Prof.dr. Henk van Beijeren. More information (program and registration) can be found here.

Microscopic models of quantum spacetime - 11 September 2008

From 15 - 19 September the informal workshop Microscopic models of quantum spacetime will be held at the ITP Utrecht.

ITP Summerschool 2008 - 18 August 2008

The ITP Summerschool will be held from 18 - 29 August 2008. More information can be found here.

Workshop IGST 11 - 15 August 2008

From 11 - 15 August 2008 the workshop 'Integrability in Gauge and String Theory' was held in Utrecht. More information can be found on the webpage: http://www.science.uu.nl/IGST08/

FOM Projectruimte for three ITP proposals - 19 June 2008

FOM has granted three Projectruimte-proposals to ITP staffmembers:
- Prof.dr. Renate Loll: 'A reality check for quantum cosmology'
- Prof.dr. Henk Stoof: 'Ultracold Fermi gases and neutron stars'
- dr. Rene van Roij (together with Prof.dr. Marjolein Dijkstra of the Debye Institute): 'Do smectic nuclei exist?'.

In 2007 one FOM-projectruimte proposal was granted to ITP staff;
- dr. Tomislav Prokopec: 'What curves the space-time at large scales? The quest for the origin of dark energy of the universe'

More information can be found on the website of FOM.

ITP rides the lightning - July 2008

More info here (in dutch).

ERC grant for Rembert Duine - 30 May 2008

Dr. Rembert Duine has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for his proposal 'New Frontiers in Spintronics'.

Symposium in honour of Prof. Jan Smit - 10 April 2008

There will be a one day international symposium, A passion for fields & lattices, in honour of Prof. Jan Smit (FOM, UvA and adjunct professor UU) to be held in Amsterdam on Monday, 25 August 2008. For further details look on: http://www.science.uva.nl/research/itf/smitfest/PassionPoster.pdf

Visit Prof. A.H. MacDonald - 19 February 2008

In April 2008 Prof. A.H. MacDonald (UT Austin) will visit the Institute for Theoretical Physics as Kramers professor. Prof. MacDonald's expertise is condensed-matter theory. He is famous for his work on the Quantum Hall Effect, for which he received the 2007 Buckley prize of the American Physical Society. His lectures will be part of the Master Course Quantum Fields in Condensed Matter (NS-TP528M) on the topic of Quantum Hall Bilayers and Exciton Condensation. Complementary lectures will be given by R.A. Duine, H.T.C. Stoof, and C. de Morais Smith. For more information see:
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~duine/qfinqm08/index.html