UTFacultiesTNWResearchDept MMMnFNewsThree Marie Curie Individual Fellowships for the UT

Three Marie Curie Individual Fellowships for the UT

The objective of the MSCA IF (Marie Curie Individual/European Fellowship) is to attract excellent researchers of any nationality to Europe, by providing them a Fellowship based on opportunities to acquire and transfer new knowledge. This year the UT was able to obtain three MSCA IF’s. The fellowships are awarded to: Anamarija Knezevic (Ruđer Bošković Institute), Jamal Seyyed Monfared Zanjani (UT) and Chaofa Zhao (École Centrale de Nantes). 

Anamarija Knezevic

"Living systems are in constant motion, starting from the smallest units of life - cell. Cells migrate, divide and differentiate. These essential movements are supported by sophisticated and highly efficient supramolecular machinery, cellular cytoskeleton. These dynamic molecular architectures not only support the shape of the cell, its mechanical resistance to deformation, but also mechanically drive its shape changes. Contrary to that, most artificial supramolecular systems are static. So are the most commonly used artificial cell membrane models, called the vesicles. The idea of this MSCA project is to develop an artificial cytoskeleton based on dynamic organic molecules which form tubular supramolecular architectures in water. This will allow controlling and stabilizing the shape of vesicles and transforming them into dynamic responsive systems. This work will shine light on how molecular forces can be amplified to micro- and macro-scale and more generally I will demonstrate the potential of molecular self-assembly processes to generate useful mechanical forces in fluids."

Tibor Kudenac (TNW): "Anamarija is a highly talented organic chemist with lots of ideas in the field of molecular sciences and soft matter. This Marie Curie fellowship will give her an opportunity to develop her innovative ideas with the support of the existing expertise and infrastructure at the UT."

Jamal Zanjani

"My project is titled Print2fly which will be devoted to the development of a futuristic composite fabrication technique based on additive manufacturing (AM). Within the field of manufacturing of composites, there is an increasing emphasis on thermoplastic composites and additive manufacturing. However, current thermoplastic additive manufacturing techniques are not suitable to manufacture parts with required reliability. These products suffer from poor mechanical performance and serious limitations in the processing of engineering thermoplastics. The aim of Print2fly is to develop a new additive manufacturing strategy for fabricating near-net-shape, large-scale, high-performance, durable and easily recyclable thermoplastic composites."

Remko Akkerman (ET): "Future optimized structures will use the right material at the right place, in exactly the right amount and orientation (metal, polymer, ceramic, composite, …). The interfaces between these different materials are crucial for the performance of the structure as a whole. Jamal’s MCIF fits perfectly in this larger research line."

Chaofa Zhao

"ICARUS is an acronym for 'Higher-order constitutive relations for granular materials: a multi-scale approach'. ICARUS aims to investigate the effect of an internal length scale on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials subjected to large deformations, which is important in many problems in science and engineering, such as in pharmaceutical industry, agriculture, energy and environmental geotechnics. For this purpose, micromechanical investigations using the Discrete Element Method simulations will be conducted, and micromechanics-based higher-order constitutive relations will be constructed and employed to solve 'benchmark' geotechnical large-deformation problems. ICARUS results in a computational simulation method that provides valuable insights in large-deformation engineering problems, and thus will aid in assessing and reducing risks of natural hazards, with benefits for society." 

Niels Kruyt (ET): “It is a great honour for me and UT that the EU has recognized the great scientific potential of Chaofa Zhao by awarding him this prestigious individual scholarship”. 

Masterclass for Marie Curie Individual Fellowships

The UT offers a free-of-charge Masterclass for potential (external) applicants and their UT supervisors to support the development of an excellent proposal for the MSCA IF call. For more information on this opportunity contact the Grants Office.

drs. J.G.M. van den Elshout (Janneke)
Press relations (available Mon-Fri)