Food waste is a defining inefficiency of the modern food system, with profound implications for resource use, climate change, and circular economy transitions. This dissertation examines food waste through two complementary lenses: the prevention of avoidable food waste and the valorization of unavoidable…

Het doel van het RAISE Onderzoek is om te onderzoeken hoe veerkrachtige mensen omgaan met stress. We kijken specifiek naar hoe belangrijke biologische systemen, zoals de HPA-as en het immuunsysteem, samenwerken met de hersenen en de sociale omgeving om veerkrachtig functioneren na moeilijkheden in de…

Understanding interactions in quantum many-body systems remains one of the most profound and difficult challenges in condensed matter physics.

With increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and their detrimental effect on the global climate, modern society needs to push for more renewable energy sources. Storing widely accessible and abundant solar energy in chemical bonds in the form of molecular fuel via artificial photosynthesis…

The filamentous bacteria Streptomyces are widespread inhabitants of terrestrial soils.

Pulsars were first discovered in 1967 and since then the population has grown and expanded over several wavelengths.

The energy system is at the heart of two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century: decreasing CO2 emissions to meet the ambitions of the Paris agreement while fulfilling the growing energy demand associated with the economic aspirations of a growing world population.

Op 11 november 2021 verdedigde Mariana Gkliati het proefschrift 'Systemic Accountability of the European Border and Coast Guard'. Het promotieonderzoek is begeleid door promotoren prof.dr. P. Rodrigues en prof.dr. L. Besselink (UvA).

Promotor: Prof.dr. B. van de Water, Co-promotores: L.T.M. van der Ven, A.S. Kienhuis

Electrocatalysis allows for storing electricity or converting it into chemical bonds, producing chemical building blocks and fuels using renewable resources.

Promotores: J.A.van Veen, P.L.G.Klinkhamer. Co-promotor: E.E.Kuramae

Fungal food spoilage often starts with a contamination with spores. Experimental data strongly indicate the existence of subpopulations of spores with different levels of resistance to preservation methods.

Every organisms in the tree of life faces the same challenge: the length of its DNA exceeds the volume of the cell it needs to fit in. Several strategies have evolved to solve this problem, one of them being the expression of proteins that bind and organize the DNA.

Three major cosmology-focused missions are planned for the next decade: the Euclid space telescope, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Promotor: B. van de Water

In this thesis unconventional tools based on fluidic interfaces were developed to study the surface and interfacial chemistry of graphene, to characterize the intrinsic properties of graphene, to disentangle the effects of substrate and of the environmental factors, and to improve handling protocols…

Regeneration is the ability of an organism to restore damaged or lost tissue with a functional replacement, and without scarring. Many lizards can regenerate their tails.

Streptomyces are filamentous bacteria that produce more than two-thirds of known antibiotics.

Promotores: H.A. Udo de Haes, H.H.T. Prins, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

In this thesis I highlight the applications of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing. This technique is a relatively new approach in the sequencing field, where nanopores are embedded in a membrane, DNA molecules are pulled through nanopores and an electrical current serving as the sequencing…

Advanced sensing techniques require graphene with high quality and well-controlled surface chemistry.

There is an urgent need for more physiologically relevant cell culture methods to guide compound selection in pre-clinical stages of the drug development pipeline.

Multiple stars, that is two or more stars composing a gravitationally bound system, are common in the universe.

Promotor: Prof.dr. P. Stevenhagen

Promotores: W. Th. F. den Hollander, M.O. Heydenreich

Op 11 november 2021 verdedigde Evelien Campfens het proefschrift 'Cross-border Claims to Cultural Objects'. Het promotieonderzoek is begeleid door prof.dr. N.J. Schrijver en prof.dr. W.J. Veraart (VU Amsterdam).

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo

Promotor: Prof.dr. B.R. Katzy

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is a maintenance policy that uses the past, current, and prognosticated health condition of an asset to predict when timely maintenance should occur.

Humanity stands at a pivotal juncture, facing the dual challenge of environmental sustainability and rapid population growth, projected to exceed 11 billion by century’s end.

The rapidly increasing commercial application of metallic nanoparticles within products will inevitably enhance the amount of NPs being released into soil.

This thesis describes the functional analysis of the Arabidopsis AHL15 gene.

We consider the propagation of electrical signals through nerve fibres.

This thesis examines enzyme domain architecture and engineering to improve the breakdown of lignocellulose and starch, abundant biopolymers crucial for sustainable biofuel and biochemical production. Carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) facilitate this degradation, but the structural complexity of…

For centuries astronomers studied the Universe by collecting light. Nowadays, we are living in times of great technological advancements, which allow us to explore our Universe in a new way - though gravitational wave radiation.

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

In a typical glycosylation reaction, a donor is activated to form a (variety of) electrophilic species which can react with a nucleophilic acceptor, following a reaction mechanism having both SN1 and SN2 character.

Traditionally, vaccines are administered intramuscularly using conventional hypodermic needles, which cause pain and distress. Microneedles are very short needles (smaller than 1 mm) that are practically invisible to the naked eye.

Galaxies are environments where gas coalesces, cools, and is converted into stars. However, it remains unclear the exact mechanisms through which galaxies acquire, redistribute and lose their gas.

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: L.H. Heitman

Op 1 april 2020 verdedigde Marc Broekema zijn proefschrift 'Cognitive Bias in the Judgment of Business Valuations and Valuators'. Het promotieonderzoek is begeleid door promotor prof. dr. J.I. van der Rest.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. de Jong

A modern ship design process is subject to a wide variety of constraints such as safety constraints, regulations, and physical constraints.

Hot astrophysical plasma is ubiquitous in the Universe, from comets in our Solar system to the largest scale structures -- the cosmic web filaments. These hot plasmas, with the temperature of a few millions of degrees, are often observed in the X-ray wavelength range.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.P. van Wezel

Promotor: W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: H.A. Every

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. Smets, M. Stech

Promotor: G.R. de Snoo, Co-promotor: C.J.M. Muster

This Thesis describes a strategy to synthesize 1,2-cis-oligosaccharides modulated by additives, such as dimethylformamide (DMF), triphenylphosphine oxide (Ph3P=O) and N-methyl(phenyl)formamide (MPF), using building blocks that carry solely benzyl type protecting groups and are therefore of uniform r…

Atherosclerosis is the main underlying pathology of cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis is caused by an immune response which is directed against (modified) lipoproteins which accumulate in the vessel wall.