Research Institutes

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Focus on Research

PhD at the Faculty

Research

Focus on Research

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

Focus on Research: information scientist Harry Buhrman

With quantum computers, information scientist Harry Buhrman hopes to solve mathematical problems that are beyond the capabilities of our current computers.

Focus on research: theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Francesco Battaglia

The four walls are draped in black ceiling-to-floor curtains, and Francesco Battaglia makes sure the door is covered too once we have sealed ourselves in the room. The laboratory is now pitch black. During experiments, he explains, even the lights are switched off. Battaglia studies the behaviour of rats and mice: nocturnal animals.

Focus on research: Physicist Peter Schall

There is ‘a whole zoo’ of new substances out there just waiting to be discovered, according to Schall. In order to learn more about the process behind the formation of perfectly regular crystals, undistorted by gravity, Schall will soon be sending his particles into space, to the ISS space station.

Focus on research: molecular biologist Martijn Rep

Molecular biologist Martijn Rep started off his study of the tomato-infecting fungus Fusarium oxysporum by examining the function of secreted proteins. He later discovered that the fungus is capable of transferring entire chromosomes to similar fungi. His findings earned him a publication in Nature. The Vici grant will enable him to unravel the mechanism underlying this phenomenon.

Focus on research: chemist Jocelyne Vreede

Jocelyne Vreede opens the door of a shadowy computer room on the fifth floor of the Roeterseiland complex. Inside are cabinets chock-a-block with computers, their fans softly whirring. Pointing to one of the backup system’s switch units, she says, ‘I rarely come here ordinarily, never more than twice a year’. And yet a major portion of Vreede’s research takes place in this very room.

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: mathematician Eric Opdam

On exciting symmetries and the inaccessible mathematical reality. 'A girlfriend once said to me, "So, you spend the whole day thinking up exercises, and then you solve them yourself?" But that’s not what mathematicians do with their lives.

Focus on Research: computer scientist Cees Snoek

Trying to find a specific video clip on the internet can be a time-consuming affair. In many cases, images will not have been tagged with an adequate description. Computer scientist Cees Snoek is working to make video retrieval a lot easier.

Focus on research: Plant pathologist Frank Takken

Each time a plant finds a new way to resist a specific type of fungus, the fungus develops a new strategy to circumvent the plant’s resistance mechanism. Plant pathologist dr. Frank Takken studies the mechanisms involved in these attack and defence reactions between fungi and plants.

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