The worldwide production of synthetic hydrocarbons relies heavily on the Fischer-Tropsch process, but the basic steps in the formation of the carbon chains remain elusive. Scientists working at Syngaschem and DIFFER used advanced spectroscopic studies to understand what happens at the surface of the catalyst. They present their results in Nature Communications.
News
February 4th 2020
Polish-born experimental physicist Beata Tyburska-Pueschel found a close symbiosis between industry and university at the accelerator lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As the new project leader of DIFFER's Ion Beam Facility, she now wants to open up the laboratory to outside users and introduce that same culture of 'giving back'.
January 17th 2020
Prof. Peter Bobbert (TU/e, CCER) is co-author of the Nature paper Classification with a disordered dopant atom network in silicon of 15 january 2020. The paper shows that devices exploiting the correlated hopping of electrons on a network of boron dopants in silicon can perform complex classification tasks, like written character recognition. This can lead to a new energy-efficient platform for Artificial Intelligence.
December 17th 2019
DIFFER is looking for a new director to lead the institute’s strategy, science and operations. The vacancy for this position was open until 21 January 2020.
A team player with an international reputation in the field of energy research is who DIFFER likes to find. The director should have a proven track record of leading scientific research collaborations and have a keen eye for opportunities to connect science with industry and society. The position is for a term of five years with the intention to extend it with a second term.
December 13th 2019
DIFFER celebrated its 60th birthday with the symposium Energizing the Future on 13 December 2019. Themes of the day were the future directions of energy research on solar fuels and fusion energy.
In 1959, the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen was founded to become the Dutch home base for research into fusion energy. “Let us make a sun on earth”, was the mission of the institute.
