On 26 January 2015 Willem Vos of UT research institute MESA+ will receive the Descartes-Huygens Award in Amsterdam. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) announced this today. He has been granted the award for his excellent research and his contribution to the French-Dutch collaboration. The award, 23,000 euros, is intended for a stay as guest researcher France.
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has presented the Descartes-Huygens Award every year since 1995. In addition to Vos the French physicist Ludwik Leibler was also granted an award.
Willem Vos
Willem Vos (1964) is an expert in the field of nanophotonics, the interaction between nanomaterials and light. The professor of Complex Photonic Systems is connected to the MESA+ research institute for Nanotechnology. Together with his team he recently demonstrated for the first time that light emission can be blocked completely with a photonic band gap. His group also succeeded in seeing microscopic objects through non-transparent screens. According to the jury, Vos is an outstanding researcher. Vos obtained his doctoral degree with distinction and earlier already received a Carnegie fellowship, the Snellius medal and a Vici subsidy of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society.
Thanks to the Descartes-Huygens Award, Willem Vos can push ahead on a collaboration project between the Institute of Nanosciences and Cryogenics (CEA/INAC/SP2M) in Grenoble and the University of Twente. During his stay in Grenoble he wants to investigate how the quantum interaction between light particles and matter ('cavity QED') can be controlled ultra-rapidly. This creates new possibilities for applications in optics and the quantum information processing.
Descartes-Huygens Award
The Descartes-Huygens Award has been established by the French and Dutch governments. The award has been granted to scientific researchers since 1995 for their excellent research and their contribution to the Dutch-French collaboration. The disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and life sciences are alternately granted the award. The sum of money to be won, 23,000 euros, is intended for a stay as guest researcher in either the Netherlands or France. The KNAW chooses the French candidtate and the Académie des Sciences or the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques if it concerns the humaties and social sciences will choose the Dutch candidate.
