News

At DIFFER, a premise for conducting science is to work with an experienced team of engineers and technicians. A recent project that illustrates this teamwork, is the construction of a heat exchanger for plasma research. Let’s dive deeper into this unique convergence where science, engineering and craftsmanship come together.

On Tuesday 14 April 2026, a group of female secondary school pupils from the Heerbeeck College visited DIFFER as part of Girls’ Day. A perfect occasion to introduce girls to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and to show them that this world is also their world.

To accelerate the development of advanced materials for the energy transition, DIFFER is building a new and unique thin film deposition and in-situ characterisation research facility: Pulsed Laser Deposition for Energy (PLD4Energy).

Power exhaust is one of the key challenges in nuclear fusion development. In his PhD research, Bob Kool explored the control of power exhaust in novel power exhaust solutions. His work showed that, in addition to improving power exhaust performance, these solutions also bring major advantages for power exhaust control.

To harness fusion energy on Earth, the fusion research community builds experimental reactors that trap fusion fuel and heat it to over 150 million degrees Celsius. Protecting the reactor wall from this extreme heat is a major challenge. In his research, PhD researcher Gijs Derks developed models to manage the interaction of hot fuel with the wall.