Institute of Physics

Physics research and education at our institute covers a wide range of topics - both experimental and theoretical, and ranging from fundamental to more applied.

Machine learning successfully predicts new materials for storing heat

Scientists from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have used AI to significantly speed up the search for better heat storage materials—an important step toward more sustainable energy systems. In a paper in the Nature ...
Printing with ice

Physicists from the University of Amsterdam have developed a method to print three-dimensional structures in ice. Last December, the work gathered a lot of attention when the researchers 3D-printed a Christmas tree. ...
Marcelo Ackermann appointed professor of Physics of Nanolithography

Prof. Dr Marcelo Ackermann has been appointed professor of Physics of Nanolithography at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam. The position is a joint professorship at UvA and partner university ...
An atom’s interaction with light is not where it is supposed to be

Physicists from the University of Amsterdam have teamed up with colleagues from Zürich to experimentally verify a curious phenomenon that had already been predicted by theory: an atomic-scale effect similar to how a ...
Why curvature matters

Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such ‘active’ materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the ...
QSim2026: International conference on quantum simulation in Amsterdam

From 10-14 August, Amsterdam will host QSim2026, the premier international conference dedicated to the rapidly evolving field of quantum simulation. Bringing together a multidisciplinary community of physicists, ...
Atom-thin materials: handle with care… and cling film

As materials become thinner – now reaching a thickness of single atoms – it has become ever more difficult to create large enough sheets of these materials and transfer them without cracking them into tiny flakes. ...
NWO Take-off grants for Corentin Coulais and Florian Schreck

NWO has recently awarded grants for Take-off feasibility studies to UvA-IoP researchers Corentin Coulais and Florian Schreck. Coulais' project will study the possibilities for using dissipative metamaterials in the ...
Long live ytterbium!

Researchers from the Universities of Amsterdam and New South Wales have answered a question that has been around for decades: whether ions of the metal ytterbium can enter certain long-lived and nearly stable states, ...
Silk-inspired ‘plantymers’ as a biodegradable plastic

What if we could make plastic from plants? A team of researchers from the Netherlands and China introduces ‘plantymers’, plastics that are sustainably produced from plant proteins and that break down naturally in the ...