2009

1 December 2009
The FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen has received a SenterNovem EOS-NEO grant ('Energie Onderzoek Subsidie - Nieuw Energie Onderzoek') of €100.000 for research on cheap metal oxide semiconductors for photoconversion. Photoconversion of sunlight in solar fuels is a promising technology to harvest and store solar energy in the form of hydrogen. Dr. Marko Sturm explains the importance of photoconversion research: "Metal oxide semiconductors, such as TiO2 or Fe2O3, are abundant and cheap; therefore their application in harvesting solar energy can potentially lead to a significant reduction in the cost of utilising solar energy."

30 November 2009
The FOM Valorisation Chapter Prize, which will be awarded for the first time in Januari 2010, will be conferred to dr. Tim Tsarfati. He receives the prize for the last chapter of his PhD thesis "Surface and interface dynamics in multilayered systems", which he successfully defended at Twente University in June 2009. With this new prize, the FOM foundation wants to stimulate its PhD students to give special attention to the questions of valorisation and possible application of their research in their thesis. The winner of the prize receives a sum of €5,000, to be spent freely.

25 November 2009
A Dutch research programme lead by dr. Tony Donné of the FOM Institute Rijnhuizen will investigate the properties of high temperature fusion plasmas. Hot fusion plasmas of 150 million degrees Centigrade, confined by magnetic fields, can easily develop instabilities which decrease the performance of the fusion reactor. These instabilities tend to amplify themselves and the researchers have taken up the task of actively stabilising the plasma with microwaves. The expected results of the research would be a crucial contribution to the operation of ITER, the international fusion reactor currently under construction. Tony Donné: "By combining the existing knowledge and expertise in the Netherlands, we as a relatively small player in the international fusion community can make an important contribution to the development of fusion as a sustainable energy source."

13 November 2009

The FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen has received an FO male/female stimulation grant from the FOM Foundation, to retain the Veni award winner Dr Anouk Rijs on staff. A sum of over € 200,000 will be disbursed on condition that Dr Rijs obtains a permanent post as senior researcher. The grant is part of the FO male/female Stimulation Programme, set up in order to retain female physicists in research. Dr Rice will also receive the Athena subsidy from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Chemical Sciences. The Chemical Sciences Athena subsidy is named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. A sum of € 100,000 will be disbursed over a period of three years.

20 October 2009

Researchers from FOM-Rijnhuizen have refined the calibration of the standard procedure to measure wall erosion in future fusion reactors. Ph.D. student Jeroen Westerhout discovered that the calibration technique yields much more signal at relatively low plasma temperatures (around 10,000 °C) than predicted by theory. The research results in a better calibration of the wall erosion, an important factor in the success of energy producing fusion experiments like ITER. They published their results in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

7 October 2009

In 1959, the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen was founded to become the Dutch home base for research into fusion energy. Fifty years later, Rijnhuizen is a succesfull and divers research institute with international standing. On November 10th, four speakers talked about the past and future of Rijnhuizen during a special anniversary seminar. During the event the anniversary book "Hittebarrière - Vijftig jaar plasmafysica bij FOM-Rijnhuizen" ('Heat barrier - fifty years of plasma physics at FOM Rijnhuizen') was presented.

Memory effects in Electrospray ionisation

30 September 2009
Researchers of the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen have shown that the solvent used in ElectroSpray Ionisation (ESI), a commonly used ionisation method in mass spectrometry, can influence the structure of relatively simple molecules.

18 September 2009
A group of researchers from Rijnhuizen, together with colleagues from Denmark and Germany, has discovered that so-called magnetic islands in fusion reactors can reflect microwaves. Their result was published in Physical Review Letters of 15 September 2009.

8 September 2009
The FOM Board of Governors has appointed Professor Niek Lopes Cardozo as the new Chairman of the Board of Governors and of the Executive Board of FOM. In addition, the Governing Board of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has appointed Lopes Cardozo as member and Chair of the Subfield of Physics. Lopes Cardozo will begin on 1 February 2010 and succeeds the current Chairman of the Board of Governors, Executive Board and Subfield of Physics, Professor Ronald Griessen.

25 augustus 2009
The FOM Executive Board has appointed Professor Wim van Saarloos (1955) Director of FOM Foundation, effective 1 November 2009. He succeeds Dr Hans Chang, who stepped down in early July after 24 years with FOM and who continues his career at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Van Saarloos is currently Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University and Director of the Lorentz Center, which he also established and for which he received a Royal Award in 2008. He has extensive administrative experience and a good network of contacts within and outside physics. The Director of FOM also acts as Director of the NWO Subfield of Physics.