Nick de Jong is working as a PhD student with prof. Mark Golden in a FOM Program 1D Physics, and he also contributes to the FOM Program on Topological Insulators. Ms. Yu Pan, a PhD student working at the IoP who is funded from the FOM Topological Insulators program and works with Dr Anne de Visser, ended as the runner up.

Topological insulators  

Topological insulators are materials that possess the properties of both insulators and conductors. The inside of such a material is an insulator, and there the electrons do not move and carry current. However, because of a twist in these same electronic states, the electrons at the edges of the material show a very different behaviour, and are mobile carriers of current. The FOM Program is aimed at creating, investigating and controlling 2D and 3D topological insulators. Ultimately this knowledge could lead to energy-efficient spintronics and a powerful platform for topological quantum computation. The UvA team coordinates this nationally funded program, and this research is an integral part of the UvA's research priority area Quantum Matter and Quantum Information.