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.

Time crystals: moving to an internal beat

A team of physicists from several universities in the Netherlands and the UK have developed one- and two-dimensional materials that at the same time are time crystals – with repeating patterns not just in space but ...
New project to investigate the source of the record-breaking neutrino detected by KM3NeT

Astroparticle physicists Aart Heijboer (UvA-IoP and Nikhef) and Shin’ichiro Ando (UvA-IoP and GRAPPA) have received funding from NWO to conduct further research into the neutrino that struck Earth with ...
IoP and QuSoft Welcome Barbara Terhal as 2026 Turing Chair

IoP and QuSoft are delighted to announce that Professor Barbara Terhal has been appointed as the 2026 Turing Chair. A leading researcher in quantum error correction and quantum information, Professor Terhal will be ...
Prizes for Charly Bolhuis and Bernardo Dias at Metamaterials 2026

Two PhD students of the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute at UvA-IoP, Charly Bolhuis and Bernardo Dias, have won prizes for their papers at the conference Metamaterials 2026 in New York.
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, ...