3D-printed microfluidic devices

HIMS PhD-candidate Pascal Breuer delivered the third-best pitch in the newly inaugurated Separation Science-Slam contest. In his pitch entitled Separation Technology for A Million Peaks (STAMP), Pascal used creativity and humour to explain to the audience how molecules can be separated and characterized using 3D-printed microfluidic devices. These are being developed in Amsterdam within the scope of the ERC STAMP project. 

Art and chemistry

Mimi den Uijl won the third prize in the new HPLC-Tube competition with her video Art and Chemistry in Amsterdam. Mimi guided viewers from the Rijksmuseum and the Atelier building of the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) to the Faculty of Science on her bicycle while explaining her project along the way.

Mimi currently conducts her PhD within the TooCOLD project of prof. Maarten van Bommel, in which advanced separation technology, light-induced degradation and spectroscopy are combined to study the degradation of molecules under the influence of light. Mimi also won an award for her poster that contained a more in-depth description of this project.

Both the HPLC-Tube and the Science-Slam competitions featured for the first time at an HPLC symposium. These were introduced to reward communicative skills, which are of increasing importance according to the organizers. For scientists to succeed in this day and age, other qualities than just scientific excellence are required.

Hydrodynamic chromatography

Noor Abdulhussain and Iro Ventouri also received well-earned poster awards. Noor Abdulhussain is another PhD-student in the STAMP project. However, in her poster she discussed a different subject, focusing on the discrepancies between the theory and practice of hydrodynamic chromatography. Dorina Adamopoulou made a significant contribution to this work, bringing in her expertise on computational-fluid dynamics. 

Iro Ventouri works in the project Higher-Order Analysis (HOSAna) project lead by prof. Govert Somsen of the VU University Amsterdam. Iro is studying agglomerates of enzymes, mainly using field-flow-fractionation and light-scattering techniques in collaboration with DSM Delft (dr. Erwin Kaal).

Website of CASA, the Centre for Analytical Sciences Amsterdam: www.casa-lab.nl

Website of HPLC 2019: www.hplc2019-milan.org