News

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.

How to store renewable electricity efficiently for later use is one of the major questions of our time. The recently awarded Growth Fund Circular Batteries project REDOX BLEND aims to develop a new class of batteries for day- to week-long storage.