Dissertation Bahar Mehmani

Wednesday 22 September Bahar will defend her thesis "Classical Manipulation of a Quantum System" in the Agnietenkapel at 12:00.

Dissertation Balt van Rees

Tuesday 7 September Balt will defend his thesis "Dynamics and the gauge/gravity duality" in the Agnietenkapel at 12:00.

Dissertation Ardian Nata Atmaja

Tuesday 26 Oktober Ardian will defend his thesis "Applications of Ads/CFT in Quark Gluon Plasma" in the Senaatskamer van het Academiegebouw Rapenburg 73 te Leiden at 14:45.

Erik Verlinde gaat zwaartekracht te lijf met nieuwe theorie

De afdeling persvoorlichting van de UvA heeft een bericht geplaatst over Erik Verlinde en zijn theorie over zwaartekracht.

Erik is ook bij het programma Denktank geweest op Business News Radio op 24 augustus, klik hier voor het fragment. Zijn interview start op 8 min. 20.

His interview in the New York Times can be found here

A scientist takes on gravity

Reads the headline of an article published in The New York Times about Verlinde's ideas on gravity.

Erik was also interviewed by Business News Radio on July 14th, please click here to listen.

Rubicon Liza Huijse

Vreemde materialen begrijpen met zwarte gaten
Sommige materialen hebben bijzondere eigenschappen. Ze kunnen bijvoorbeeld weerstandsloos stroom geleiden of kennen eindeloos veel laagste energietoestanden. Materialen met dit soort bijzondere eigenschappen zijn vaak nog slecht begrepen. De onderzoekers halen alles uit de kast, tot zwarte gaten aan toe, om meer inzicht in deze materialen te krijgen.

Dissertation Joost Hoogeveen

Friday 9 July Joost will defend his thesis "Fundamentals of the Pure Spinor Formalism" in the Agnietenkapel at 12:00.

String Theory Workshop 2010

From June 28th till July 9th another workshop will be held by the Strings Theory Group.The workshop will focus on new developments in string theory, gauge theory and quantum gravity. The format of the meeting will be a relaxed program of talks with plenty of opportunity for discussion, collaboration and inspiration.

UvA ‘Stapenning’ honorary award for theoretical physicist Sander Bais

Prof. Sander Bais received the ‘Stapenning', a special University of Amsterdam (UvA) honorary award, on the occasion of his departure as professor of Theoretical Physics. Rector Magnificus Prof. Dymph van den Boom presented the medal following Professor Bais' farewell speech on Wednesday, 16 June. Bais received the award for his outstanding achievements at the University of Amsterdam as a researcher, teacher and executive director.

Dissertation Liza Huijse:

Friday 18 June Liza will defend her thesis "A supersymmetric model for lattice fermions" in the Agnietenkapel at 12:00.

Symposium en afscheidscollege Sander Bais

Op dinsdag 15 juni zal er een symposium plaatsvinden wat een wetenschappelijk karakter zal hebben gevolgd door het afscheidscollege op woensdag 16 juni.

Verslag: Waarom is de lucht blauw?

Jan Pieter van der Schaar heeft op zondag 23 mei een kinderlezing gehouden bij Nemo. Tijdens deze lezing heeft hij kinderen laten ontdekken hoe wonderlijk het is dat mensen de lucht blauw zien. Met behulp van demonstraties en proefjes werd duidelijk wat licht is, wat er onderweg naar de aarde met het licht gebeurt en hoe het uiteindelijk in ons oog terechtkomt. Klik hier voor het verslag.

Interview Marika Taylor

Explaining all forces of nature with one unique theory is the goal of physics. In the eighties physicists succeeded to make this one theory: String theory. Marika Taylor explains more in this interview with the Volkskrant.

GRAPPA

The center for Gravity and AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam (GRAPPA), which represents one of the priority areas (onderzoekszwaartepunten) of the science faculty of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, is organizing a series of afternoon meetings centered around one particular subject each.
The third meeting in this series will take place on Wednesday, May 19th, from 14.00-17.00 hours, in room Z011 at Nikhef. The theme of this second meeting is "Gravitational Waves", and the program is as follows:

• 14.00-14.30 coffee
• 14.30-15.15 B.S. Sathyaprakash (Cardiff) Fundamentals of generation and detection of gravitational waves
• 15.15-16.00 C. van den Broeck (Nikhef) Physics and astrophysics with gravitational waves
• 16.00-16.30 G. Koekoek (Nikhef) Relativistic epicycles and gravitational waves
• 16.30-17.00 drinks

For more information about GRAPPA, including the possibility to sign up for a mailing list, please go to the website

Visiting professor Savdeep Sethi

Professor Savdeep Sethi (University of Chicago) has been awarded the van der Waals chair at the University of Amsterdam. He will occupy this position as visiting professor from April 1-June 30. While in Amsterdam, professor Sethi will deliver a series of lectures entitled: Introduction to supergravity and flux compactifications.
The lectures will be given on Thusday afternoons from 14-16 hours in April and May, with the exception of April 20th and May 4th.

The schedule has been changed, please find the correct dates and locations below:

• 15 April 2010, J/K 2.50
• 20 April 2010, J/K 2.50 (lecture starts at 15.00 hrs.)
• 29 April 2010, P 0.15A
• 4 May 2010, J/K 2.50 (lecture starts at 15.00 hrs.)
• 20 May 2010, J/K 3.85
• 25 May 2010, J/K 2.50 (lecture starts at 15.00 hrs.)

GRAPPA

The center for Gravity and AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam, which represents one of the priority areas (onderzoekszwaartepunten) of the science faculty of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, is organizing a series of afternoon meetings centered around one particular subject each.
The second meeting in this series will take place on Wednesday, March 3rd, from 14.00-17.00 hours, in room Z011 at NIKHEF. The theme of this second meeting is "Dark Matter", and the program is as follows:

• 14.00-14.30 coffee
• 14.30-15.15 G. Bertone (IAP, Paris)Identifying Dark Matter Particles
• 15.15-16.00 H. Hoekstra (Leiden) Looking at the dark side: the dark matter distribution in the universe as revealed by weak gravitational lensing
• 16.00-16.30 E. de Wolf (ITFA/NIKHEF, Amsterdam) KM3Net as neutrino telescope
• 16.30-17.00 drinks

The next meeting is scheduled for May 12th.
For more information about GRAPPA, including the possibility to sign up for a mailing list, please go to the website

GRAPPA

The center for Gravitation and AstroParticle Physics Amsterdam (GRAPPA), which represents one of the priority areas (onderzoekszwaartepunten) of the science faculty of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, is organizing a series of afternoon meetings centered around one particular subject each.
The first meeting in this series will take place on Wednesday, February 3rd, from 14.00-17.00 hours, in room Z011 at NIKHEF. The theme of this first meeting is "the Cosmic Microwave Background", and the program is as follows:

• 14.00-14.30 coffee
• 14.30-14.35 opening
• 14.35-15.20 B. Wandelt ((University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign/APC-Paris)
• 15.20-15.50 D. Meerburg (API/ITFA, Amsterdam) 15.50-16.00 discussion
• 16.00-16.15 R. Wijers (API, Amsterdam)
• 16.15-17.00 drinks

The next meeting is scheduled for March 3rd.
For more information about GRAPPA, including the possibility to sign up for a mailing list, please go to the website

Erik Verlinde on the Origin of Gravity

Erik Verlinde has published a paper on the origin of gravity and the laws of Newton. He argues that gravity emerges as an entropic force, caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies.

More information:

• Interview in NewScientist
• Video Science Flash