AMOLF is a research institute and part of the institutes organization of the
Dutch Research Council
The Dutch Research Council (NWO, Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) is the national research council of the Netherlands. NWO funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course o ...
(NWO). AMOLF carries out fundamental research on the physics and design principles of natural and man-made complex matter. AMOLF uses these insights to create novel functional materials and find new solutions to societal challenges in renewable energy, green ICT and healthcare. AMOLF is located at the
Amsterdam Science Park.
AMOLF used to be part of the
Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). On 31 December 2016 FOM integrated in NWO.
History
The institute was established in 1949 by the government as the FOM Laboratory for Mass Spectrography. In 1960, it was renamed to Laboratory for Mass Separation, and in 1966 it was reorganized into a research institute and renamed FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMOLF).
The original research goal was to demonstrate the separation of uranium isotopes by electromagnetic separation methods, a topic of great strategic importance after World War II. To reach this goal, a number of novel analytical instruments were developed, starting with the development of mass-spectrometric tools. In 1953 AMOLF was the first European institute to successfully enrich Uranium. Soon after, research on thermal diffusion in gases followed, as did
ultracentrifuge
An ultracentrifuge is a centrifuge optimized for spinning a rotor at very high speeds, capable of generating acceleration as high as (approx. ). There are two kinds of ultracentrifuges, the preparative and the analytical ultracentrifuge. Both cla ...
concepts, cathode dispersion, excitation of gases by using energetic ions and research on molecular beams. The gas-
ultracentrifuge
An ultracentrifuge is a centrifuge optimized for spinning a rotor at very high speeds, capable of generating acceleration as high as (approx. ). There are two kinds of ultracentrifuges, the preparative and the analytical ultracentrifuge. Both cla ...
developed at AMOLF (under ) provided a base for the commercial enrichment of Uranium at the today well-known company of
URENCO
The Urenco Group is a British-German-Dutch nuclear fuel consortium operating several uranium enrichment plants in Germany, the Netherlands, United States, and United Kingdom. It supplies nuclear power stations in about 15 countries, and stat ...
in
Almelo
Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek.
Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...
.
Structure and organization
AMOLF functions as an incubator for Dutch science, both in terms of launching new research themes and in terms of training talented scientists. AMOLF is headed by its director
Huib Bakker, who succeeded on 1 February 2016. The organization has 19 research groups headed by tenured or tenure-track group leaders. AMOLF employs about 130 researchers and 70 employees for technical and administrative support.
Research
AMOLF’s research program consists of four intertwined themes.
* Nanophotonics: controlling and manipulating light with structures at the nanometer scale
* Nanophotovoltaics: improving solar cells with nanomaterials
* Designer Matter: research and design of new smart materials
* Living Matter: research of biomaterials and multi-cellular systems
AMOLF publishes each year on average 15 PhD theses and over 120 papers.
Notable researchers
*
Huib Bakker
*
Marileen Dogterom (worked at AMOLF from 1997 to 2013)
*
Daan Frenkel
*
Ad Lagendijk
*
Albert Polman
References
External links
AMOLF
{{authority control
Nanotechnology institutions
Organisations based in Amsterdam
Physics research institutes
Research institutes in the Netherlands