Pre-University Physics

Sander Otte

Full Professor Quantum Nanoscience

Delft University of Technology

Sander Otte works as a professor of physics at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the TU Delft. He is currently a teacher in the Applied Physics program providing courses in both quantum and classical mechanics. Sander Otte is involved in the Pre-University Physics MOOC, because he wants to reduce the gap between physics taught at a high school level and at an academic, more formal, level.

Having performed research in various labs in The Netherlands and the United States, he now leads his own research group, which investigates atomic scale phenomena using low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. In particular, his group focuses on the transition between the quantum nature and the classical manifestation of matter.

Jeroen Kalkman

Assistant Professor Imaging Physics

Delft University of Technology

Jeroen Kalkman works at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the TU Delft as an assistant professor in physics. He is a lecturer for several Computational Science and Optical Imaging courses for the Applied Physics Program. He obtained his PhD at the FOM Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics in the Photonic Materials Group at Utrecht University. After spending two years in industrial research, he moved back to academia and worked in the department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

Today, Jeroen Kalkman is part of the Department of Imaging Physics, where he leads a research group on optical tomography. His research is devoted to the development of novel optical instrumentation with application to process control, systems biology, cultural heritage, and clinical diagnostics. Jeroen Kalkman is motivated to be a lecturer in the Pre-University Physics MOOC and introduce high-school students to the mathematical formalism used in academic physics.

Liedewij Laan

Associate Professor Bionanoscience

Delft University of Technology

Liedewij Laan works as an associate professor of physics at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at the TU Delft. She is teaching courses on physics, cell biology and systems biology in the Applied Physics and Nanobiology program. In this Pre-University Physics MOOC, she wants to share how fundamental physics has been a building block for innovative technologies.

She has completed her MSc in applied physics at the University of Twente and obtained a PhD at Leiden University in experimental biophysics. Before moving to the TU Delft, she did her postdoctoral research at Harvard University in Systems Biology.

Currently, Liedewij Laan is working at the Department of Bionanoscience at Delft University of Technology. Her lab's research is directed at evolutionary biophysics. She uses a variety of approaches and techniques to study how long evolutionary processes are facilitated by fast processes that take place in cells, and that are governed by laws of physics, such as conservation laws, electrostatics, and diffusion. She hopes that these fundamental findings will help to better predict and control evolutionary processes, that have societal relevance, such as cancer progression or drug resistance.

Timon Idema

Associate Professor Bionanoscience

Delft University of Technology

Timon Idema works at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at TU Delft as an associate professor of physics. He is the program director of the MSc Nanobiology and teaches several courses in biophysics, quantum mechanics, mechanics, and general relativity. He also received the Teacher of the Year award in 2019 and the J.B. Westerdijkprize for excellence in education in 2020.

He completed his PhD in theoretical biophysics at Leiden University. After that, he moved to the USA for his postdoctoral research on the mechanics of developing biological systems at the University of Pennsylvania.

Presently, Timon Idema is leading a research group in theoretical biophysics, which is part of the Department of Bionanoscience at Delft University of Technology. Using mathematical models and simulations, he investigates complex structures in biology on both small scales, such as proteins, and large scales, like macroscopic behavior of populations.