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Focus on Research

PhD at the Faculty

Research

Focus on Research (Archive)

The header 'Focus on research' features high-profile research being carried out at the Faculty of Science.

Focus on research: AI-scientist Bert Bredeweg

The scudding of the clouds across the sky, the pouring of a cup of coffee; one may be more complicated to describe than the other, but they are both examples of systems that change according to set rules. Bert Bredeweg, a scientist specialising in artificial intelligence developed an interactive computer program for describing these types of systems conceptually.

Focus on research: molecular biologist Frans Klis

Frans Klis offers an apology as he opens a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate his research with a few pictures. ‘We'll skip the worst of these, he says, clicking past photographs of a white tongue, a red baby bottom and severely infected fingernails. All fungal infections, and mainly caused by Candida albicans, the subject of Klis' research.

Focus on Research: medical biologist Natalie Cappaert

A couple of weeks ago medical biologist Natalie Cappaert and her colleagues in the Cellular and Systems Neuroscience research group moved into a new building at Science Park Amsterdam. Though she does not have her full set of equipment yet, once the hassle of relocating is over, Cappaert hopes to quickly resume her research into communication in the brain.

Focus on research: mathematician Jan Brandts

Mathematics is regarded by many as abstract, incomprehensible and difficult, a judgment that University of Amsterdam (UvA) mathematician Jan Brandts is working hard to dispel.

Focus on research: environmental chemist Pim de Voogt

‘Where does a substance end up if I throw it in the canal?’ Pim de Voogt points at the window of his office on the Nieuwe Achtergracht. ‘How much of it will end up in the air, how much will end up in the fish?

Focus on research: theoretical physicist Jan Pieter van der Schaar

Theoretical physicist Jan Pieter van der Schaar uses the theories of the very large to gain an understanding of the very small. Using cosmology, he is searching for a proof of string theory.

Focus on research: forensic DNA expert Ate Kloosterman

Forensic DNA expert Ate Kloosterman has been a researcher with the Nederlands Forensisch Intituut (NFI) [the Netherlands Forensic Institute] for years and is the expert in the area of DNA profiling. Since recently he has, as a professor by special appointment at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, been teaching University of Amsterdam Master’s students the tricks of his exciting trade.

Focus on research: chemists Wybren Jan Buma en Fred Brouwer

Wybren Jan Buma and Fred Brouwer from the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences recently won the Descartes prize, also known as the “European Nobel Prize” for their research into light and molecules. Their research focuses on getting molecules to move in a controlled fashion by shining light on them.

Focus on research: virologist Lia van der Hoek

What are the chances that the first official sample you analyse using a newly developed technique will produce a highly impressive result? In general, not great. And yet this is exactly what happened to Lia van der Hoek.

Focus on research: astronomer Rudy Wijnands

What most people only know from films and sci-fi novels is everyday fare to astronomer Rudy Wijnands: neutron stars and black holes are subjects of research for the astronomer in the X-ray/High-energy Astrophysics Group of the Anton Pannekoek astronomical institute. The astronomer recently received a starting grant of a half million euros from the European Research Council.

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