Lectures and other contributions in 2021

For the general public

• De poederdoos uit het Palmhoutwrak - een lezing over het onderzoek naar de edelmetaalvondsten uit het Palmhoutwrak. In dit inmiddels beroemde scheepswrak zijn tal van bijzondere edelmetalen objecten gevonden (Tonny Beentjes, Janneke van der Stok, Ineke Joosten, Maarten van Bommel)
• Hoe leg je moleculaire knopen? - professional lecture (Jan van Maarseveen)
• ‘Highlights van het onderzoek aan de Nachtwacht’, Speeddaten Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Katrien Keune)
• Operation Night Watch, FAST2021, Amersfoort (Katrien Keune)
• Onderzoek en behandeling: een kwestie van timing, Workshop Waardemanagement Prioriteiten voor Collectiemanagement en Conservering voor gemeentelijke archeologische depots (Ineke Joosten, Tonny Beentjes, Maarten van Bommel)
• AMOR - Archeologisch MetaalOppervlak Research, lunch lecture (Janneke van der Stok, Ineke Joosten, Tonny Beentjes, Maarten van Bommel)
• ‘Operatie Nachtwacht: hoe staat het ermee?’, Lunch Dates Vrienden, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Katrien Keune)
• Taming electrons and covalently made mechanically interlocked molecules, professional lecture (Jan van Maarseveen)
• Organizing biweekly NICAS Colloquium (Katrien Keune)

For high school students and teachers

• Afval als grondstof voor de chemie - Supervising finalists of the national school chemistry competition at CSG Jan Arentsz Alkmaar (Stefania Grecea, Andreea Gheorghe, Chris Slootweg, Steven Beijer)
• Visiting high school students Chris Kooijman and Max Tiemersma from RSG Simon Vestdijk in Harlingen win two profielwerkstuk prizes as a result of their research at HIMS (N. Raveendran Shiju, Maria Ronda Lloret)
• Profielwerkstukbegeleiding Atheneum College Hageveld Heemstede: analytische onderzoekstechnieken in Operatie Nachtwacht (Katrien Keune)
• Profielwerkstuk begeleiding Keizer Karel College Amstelveen: chemie over loodwit in schilderkunst (Katrien Keune)

HIMS researchers appearing in the media in 2021

The dream team: the magical top ten chemistry talents
Marie Brands and Lotte Metz appear in this list
► 16 December 2021 Change Inc.

Plantics among five fast-growing 'climate tech' companies 
Plantics, founded in 2014 by Gadi Rothenberg, is mentioned in FD as one of the fast-growing 'climate tech' companies investors will keep an eye on.
► 15 December 2021 FD

Sisters in Science win NWO Diversity Initiative Award
Interview with Mimi, Noor and Lotte in AD
► 2 December 2021 AD

Musings from the Power List: Bob Pirok
Interview with Bob Pirok in the Analytical Scientist.
► 30 November 2021 The Analytical Scientist

Jan van Maarseveen and Sander Woutersen in Folia
120 years after the famous UvA chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901, the Amsterdam laboratory where he worked on his research is declared National Chemical Heritage. Jan van Maarseveen and Sander Woutersen talk about Van 't Hoff to Folia.
► 17 November 2021 Folia

Gadi Rothenberg at Wiley: Research and Teaching in the Digital Age
Researchers' top tips have been collected to help others thrive in the learning and teaching digital age.
► 8 November 2021 www.wiley.com

Timothy Noël in C2W about his passion for flow chemistry
C2W has an interview with chemist Timothy Noël (UvA-HIMS), who recently won the KNCV Gold Medal. There he talks about his predilection for flow chemistry: synthesis as done by an engineer, not in test tubes but in a miniature version of a chemical factory.
► 27 October 2021 C2W

Henk Hiemstra in De Volkskrant about the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for organocatalysis
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Benjamin List and David MacMillan for the discovery of organic catalysts. In De Volkskrant, UvA chemist Henk Hiemstra (HIMS) talks about the importance of organocatalysis.
► 6 October 2021 De Volkskrant

Joost Reek at RTL News about getting energy from diapers
A new factory in Gelderland recycles diapers and incontinence material, with part of the material being processed into reusable raw materials and part converted into energy. Joost Reek (HIMS) explains.
►20 September 2021 RTL Nieuws

SistersinScience at Anna’s Brains
Lotte, Noor and Mimi feature in the scientific television show ‘Anna’s Brains’, a VPRO series of 8 episodes on NPO3 which tries to answer scientific questions.
►Episode 30 August 2021, featuring Mimi: Kan je leven onder water?
►Episode 6 September 2021, featuring Mimi: Kan je praten met dieren?
►Episode 27 September 2021, featuring Lotte: Kan je een zelfrijdende fiets maken?
►Episode 18 October 2021, featuring Noor: Kan je surfen op lucht?
An introduction to the program could be seen at the show of Humberto.

Article on Susphos: Recycling: SusPhos maakt de fosfaatcirkel rond
Samen met stikstof en kalium is fosfaat nodig om gewassen te laten groeien. Het is dus een belangrijk bestanddeel van kunstmest. Daarnaast heeft fosfaat een brandvertragende werking, wat een tweede toepassingsgebied oplevert. SusPhos wint de grondstof fosfaat terug uit de afvalwaterketen. Het winningsproces werd vier jaar geleden ontwikkeld. Begin volgend jaar wordt een fabriek met een capaciteit van 50.000 ton per jaar gebouwd. CTO Willem Schipper vertelt over deze keuze en over meer stukjes van de puzzel die het bedrijf het komende jaar gaat leggen.
► July 2021, Chemie Magazine

Jan van Maarseveen in NRC about improved production of gamma-cyclodextrin American chemists have developed a way to simplify the production of gamma-cyclodextrin. One of the things this sugar-like molecule is used for is to make medicines easier to absorb in your body. NRC Handelsblad writes about the discovery and asked Jan van Maarseveen (UvA-HIMS) about his interpretation.
► 30 June 2021, NRC Handelsblad

Gert-Jan Gruter in Algemeen Dagblad about plastic litter
In Eindhoven, a coca-cola bottle dating back at least a quarter of a century was unearthed during work , of which even the plastic cap was still completely intact. Reason for Algemeen Dagblad to ask a number of experts, including Gert-Jan Gruter (UvA-HIMS) about how long plastic objects remain intact if they are thrown away as litter.
► 29 June 2021, Algemeen Dagblad

Joen Hermans about the chemistry of oil paint
Joen Hermans (UvA-HIMS) talks about his research in the chemistry of oil paint, and why Rembrandt was also a brilliant chemist besides a great painter.
► 22 June 2021, NPO Radio 1,  Focus

Joen Hermans about master painters and chemistry
The master painters of the golden age also needed chemical knowledge to create their paintings. Joen Hermans talks about the chemical properties of the paint from that time. 
► 6 June 2021, Algemeen Dagblad

Create mirror image molecules without mess
Some molecules have 'mirror images'. Researchers from Basel University selectively made one of six possible mirror images of a molecule. In this article Joost Reek comments on it.
► 2 June 2021, NRC 

Joen Hermans lectures at Universiteit van Nederland: Wat maakt Rembrandt een scheikundig wonder?
The Night Watch as it now hangs in the museum is no longer the same as when Rembrandt added the last brushstrokes. The oil and pigments in paintings react with each other and the environment, causing paint to change or sometimes even disappear. Chemist Joen Hermans (University of Amsterdam & Rijksmuseum) shows which chemical reactions all take place on a work of art.
► 6 May 2021, Universiteit van Nederland

Wim Noorduin and Lukas Helmbrecht in NRC about their chemical painting trick
In NRC Handelsblad PhD candidate Lukas Helmbrecht and his supervisor Wim Noorduin (both UvA-HIMS and AMOLF) tell about the chemical magic trick with which they can "paint" a fluorescent image. Specialist medium E-Totaal pays attention to the portrait of Marie Curie that the chemists made with their technique. The technique is based on a semiconductor layer of perovskite.
► 16 April 2021, NRC 
►13 April 2021, E-Totaal

Gadi Rothenberg about his “sticky mess” 
Gadi Rothenberg (HIMS) has once again reached multiple media with the story about his “sticky mess”, a 100% natural bioplastic discovered by accident. 
► 9 March 2021, podcast "Bijvangst"
► 3 March 2021, InnovationOrigins

Fighting the corona virus with UV-light?
Since the very beginning of the corona crisis, attempts have been made to return to normal life as soon as possible. One of the possible solutions that could help with this: a lamp that switches off the corona virus particles.
Fred Brouwer explains.
► 3 March 2021,  EenVandaag

Nuclear energy not necessary for climate goals (and expensive)
Bob van der Zwaan at NU.nl about nuclear energy.
► 1 March 2021, NU.nl

Shedding light on photocatalysis
C2W featured Tim Noël's Nature Communications paper on the true nature of the catalytically active species in photocatalytic reactions using bismuth oxide semiconductor.
► 22 February 2021, C2W

Sisters in Science 
Noor Abdulhussain, Mimi den Uijl and Lotte Schreuders founded the Instagram account "Sisters in Science". Their goal? Breaking stereotypes and showing that it's not only white old men who work in science.
► 28 February 2021, De Telegraaf
► 26 February 2021, Chemie Magazine
► 16 February 2021, Linda.nl (interview with Noor Abdulhussain)
► 11 February 2021, RedPers.nl

Unsuccessful UvA experiment did result in 100% vegetable plastic
Ten years ago UvA scientists discovered 100 percent bioplastic, now there is a plant-based chair. Gadi Rothenberg explains to newspaper Het Parool (interview in Dutch).
►12 January 2021, Het Parool