Focus sessions

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs - Brabantzaal

Chairs: Jay Armas (UvA), Tuan Pham (UvA)

Abstract
This focus session explores the theme “physics beyond physics”: the use of concepts, methods, and ways of reasoning from physics to understand collective phenomena in social, economic, cultural and linguistic systems. While these systems lie outside the realm of traditional physics, they share common features: many interacting components, nonlinear feedback, fluctuations, phase transitions, and the emergent interplay between microscopic rules and macroscopic behaviour.

The session brings together four perspectives on how physics-inspired approaches can illuminate complex systems. Vittorio will discuss language and innovation, examining how new ideas, expressions, and cultural forms emerge and spread through interacting populations. Wout will focus on polarisation and segregation, where tools from statistical physics help explain how local interactions can generate collective patterns of separation, consensus, or fragmentation. Diego will address financial networks, showing how interdependence, contagion, and systemic risk can be studied using ideas related to stability, propagation, and resilience. Caterina will present work on machine learning and network inference, highlighting how data-driven methods can uncover hidden interactions and reconstruct the structures underlying complex dynamics.

By putting these topics together, the session aims to showcase to the Dutch physics community how far physical theories can transcend beyond their original domain. What can physics contribute to the study of society, markets, language, and data? Conversely, how do these systems challenge and extend the conceptual boundaries of physics itself? The session will encourage cross-disciplinary discussion between physicists interested in societal challenges, complex systems, machine learning, and the vast number of applications of physical thinking beyond physics.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs

Chairs:Adrie Mackus (TU/e), Gesa Welker (TU/e)

Abstract
Vacuum technology is foundational for advanced experiments and high-tech systems in modern physics. From small setups for semiconductor manufacturing, scanning probe microscopy and quantum science, to the large infrastructure of gravitational-wave observatories, nuclear fusion reactors and particle accelerators, progress increasingly depends on the ability to create, maintain, and characterize a vacuum environment.

This focus session will showcase the extreme requirements for the vacuum systems used for frontier physics research. Topics include vacuum engineering for large-scale scientific infrastructure, vacuum processing for semiconductor manufacturing, and ultra-high vacuum systems for surface-science and quantum experiments.

The focus session will bring together researchers from academia, research institutes, and industry to discuss both fundamental and applied aspects of vacuum technology, with particular emphasis on how advances in vacuum systems continue to expand the boundaries of modern physics and high-tech innovation.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs 

Chairs: Manuela Vecchii (RUG), Muharrem Bayraktar (UT), Freek Molkenboer (TNO)                    

Abstract
Vacuum technology is foundational for advanced experiments and high-tech systems in modern physics. From small setups for semiconductor manufacturing, scanning probe microscopy and quantum science, to the large infrastructure of gravitational-wave observatories, nuclear fusion reactors and particle accelerators, progress increasingly depends on the ability to create, maintain, and characterize a vacuum environment.

This focus session will showcase the extreme requirements for the vacuum systems used for frontier physics research. Topics include vacuum engineering for large-scale scientific infrastructure, vacuum processing for semiconductor manufacturing, and ultra-high vacuum systems for surface-science and quantum experiments.

The focus session will bring together researchers from academia, research institutes, and industry to discuss both fundamental and applied aspects of vacuum technology, with particular emphasis on how advances in vacuum systems continue to expand the boundaries of modern physics and high-tech innovation.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs

Chairs: Julia Even (RUG), Nicolo de Groot (RU)

Abstract
Research on isotopes has a long history in the Netherlands, where academia and industry both evolved around the field of the enrichment of isotopes and the production of radioisotopes for medical diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Enriched stable isotopes are also crucial for fundamental research such as neutrino physics. Their application in heavy ion collision provides information on nuclear structure. Exotic, radioactive nuclei give an insightful view into nuclear stability, nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics processes, helping us to understand the limits of stability and answer the question which is the heaviest element that can exist in our universe.

In this focus session, we want to answer the following questions: How can we enrich stable nuclei? How can we produce radioactive isotopes with highest efficiency? How are isotopes useful in medicine? What can isotopes tell us about nuclear stability and nuclear structure? How can collisions of different isotopes and light ions help us disentangle the role of nuclear geometry and initial-state fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions? What can isotope-dependent measurements tell us about the neutron distribution inside nuclei and the nuclear EoS? Can isotopes even help us to measure the mass of subatomic particles like neutrinos?

We would like to highlight the synergies and the complementarity in fundamental and applied research. We will provide an overview on ongoing research and technical developments in the field of isotopes inside and outside the Netherlands. The session is meant to stimulate new collaborations across disciplines.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs 

Chair: Pantelis Bampoulis (UT)

Abstract
Excitons in 2D materials are a unique platform for both fundamental studies of many-body and topological quantum phenomena, as well as for applications in next-generation optoelectronics, valleytronics, quantum light technologies. By controlling material composition, twist angle, strain, dielectric environment, and electrostatic doping, it is possible to engineer excitonic states in these 2D materials with tailored spatial localization, valley and spin degrees-of-freedom, interactions, and topology. This focus session will bring together experimental and theoretical perspectives to address recent developments in moiré and interlayer excitons, many-body exciton interactions, and topological excitonic states in 2D semiconductor-based van der Waals heterostructures. Particular emphasis will be placed on how moiré potentials and electronic band topology can reshape exciton spectra, transport, optical selection rules, and collective phases.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs

Chairs: Shuxia Tao (TU/e), Monica Morales-Masis (TU/e)

Abstract
Artificial intelligence is transforming materials physics by enabling the discovery and understanding of complex functional materials beyond the limits of conventional approaches. Optoelectronic materials provide an ideal platform for this paradigm shift, as their properties emerge from intertwined electronic, excitonic, spin, and photonic phenomena accessible through increasingly rich experimental and computational datasets. In particular, physics-informed AI and machine learning offer new opportunities to integrate fundamental physical principles with data-driven discovery, enabling more predictive, interpretable, and autonomous research workflows.

This session brings together expertise in theory, synthesis, and advanced characterization to explore how AI can accelerate the development of next-generation optoelectronic and quantum materials. Topics include AI-assisted materials discovery, autonomous experimentation, high-throughput simulations, and machine-learning analysis of spectroscopic and structural data. Beyond showcasing recent advances, the session aims to shape a shared vision for AI-enabled materials research and to strengthen collaborations across the Dutch physics and materials community. By connecting disciplines and scales, the session seeks to establish new paradigms for the rapid and sustainable discovery of functional materials.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs

Chairs: Emilia Olsson (ARCNL/UvA), Giuditta Perversi (UM)

Abstract
Diffusion and mobility in solids are key to the several technologies and functional materials, governing not only ion transport, but switching, phase change, degradation, and electrochemical behaviour. Rather than being background processes and considering solids as fixed entities, we will here explore how the motion of ions, defects, and charge carriers actively determine how materials and devices behave under the effect of interfaces, strain, electric fields, and operating conditions. In this focus session, we will bring together leading academics in this area, discussing the latest developments in the physics of diffusion and mobility in complex solids. We will address how local structure, defect chemistry, surfaces, and interfaces can shape transport pathways and how we can tune these for next generation technologies. Topics will include ionic and electronic conductivity in oxides, migration in memristors, resistive switching, oxygen exchange at surfaces, and operando studies. Across these themes, diffusion and mobility emerge as a common thread linking atomic scale mechanisms to macroscale materials function. Bringing perspectives from solid state ionics, ferroic materials, and electrochemical materials science, we will highlight how understanding motion in solids enables new design principles for neuromorphic computing, memory technologies, and energy materials.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs 

Chair: Alexandre Morin (LEI)

Abstract
Self-assembly is a powerful way of manufacturing materials that require neither local control of the constituent elements nor global supervision. Yet it suffers limitations in terms of kinetics and achievable material structures. Intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, active building blocks have the potential to overcome these limitations and enhance self-assembly possibilities. The precise activity mechanisms beneficial to self-assembly and optimal activity conditions remain to be fully uncovered. This focus session will highlight some recent experimental, computational, and theoretical efforts to power-up self-assembly with activity.

11:30 hrs - 12:45 hrs 

Chair: Marcel Vonk (UvA), Thomas Grimm (UU)

Abstract
Mathematical physics is an active topic of research in the Netherlands, both in physics and in mathematics institutes. In this focus session, we want to start building a sense of community between the many different researchers in the country who consider mathematical physics to be a large or small theme in their research. To this end, we focus on several methods that have been around in mathematics for many years, and that have recently increased in popularity in physics. In particular, we showcase four topics. First, resurgence: a mathematical toolkit that is extremely useful in studying nonperturbative physics. Second, tame geometry: a way to study a well-behaved class of functions that has very promising applications to finiteness and complexity questions. Third, matrix model techniques: useful techniques to study realistic yet simple models of gauge and gravity theories. And fourth, non-commutative geometry: a class of techniques that build on the idea of "using functions to define spaces" which allows these functions to be noncommutative, and which has all sorts of quantum physics applications. At the end of the session, we will briefly discuss with those interested whether a more structured form of community building - e.g., a regular joint seminar, an occasional meeting, or joint grant applications - is desired.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chair: Sander Otte (TUDelft)

Abstract
As the world passes through 1.5 degrees of global warming compared to pre-industrial levels, despite the 2015 Paris agreement, national governments continue to fail to implement policies ensuring CO2 emissions reductions needed to protect future generations from excessive harm. In doing so, they blatantly disregard clear and explicit warnings given by the international community of climate scientists. Moreover, scientific findings are increasingly cast doubt upon in the public debate, resulting in a general distrust of science fueled by conservative economic interests.

In the face of these events, scientists from various disciplines, including physicists, have taken it upon themselves to join the climate activist movement. Under the banner of Scientist Rebellion, the scientist branch of Extinction Rebellion, they openly join in public protests to instill a sense of urgency and call the government to action. These protests regularly involve acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking central infrastructure, to ensure that their protests do not go unnoticed.

Besides appreciation, these actions have also received criticism within the scientific community. Opponents argue that physicists should not in their professional capacities speak on matters outside their scientific expertise or express their opinions related to policy making. Yet, exchanges of thoughts on this topic typically stay limited to private conversations. This focus session aims to bring this conversation to an official level and stimulate an active debate on the role of physicists in the climate crisis.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chair: Juan Rojo Chacon (VU), Sonia Conesa Boj (TUDelft)

Abstract
Agentic AI is changing the scientific workflow in physics. Unlike conventional machine-learning tools that optimise a specific task, AI agents can decompose research goals into steps, interact with code, data, instruments and literature, and iterate on intermediate results under human supervision. This creates new opportunities in physics, where progress often depends on complex chains of modelling, computation, experimental control, uncertainty quantification and interpretation.

The urgency is clear: examples are already appearing in settings directly relevant to the NWO Physics community, including quantum-device calibration and control, collider-data analysis, numerical modelling, and AI-assisted conjecture generation in mathematical physics. These developments suggest a transition from AI as an analysis tool to AI as a research collaborator embedded in the full discovery loop. That transition raises scientific questions that physicists are well placed to address: How should autonomous workflows be validated? How can uncertainty, reproducibility and provenance be preserved? Which parts of the research cycle can be accelerated, and where must human judgement remain central?

This focus session brings together speakers from quantum science, particle physics and mathematical physics to give a coherent view of agentic AI across complementary areas. The talks will be followed by an extended round table with audience questions, aimed at identifying concrete opportunities, limitations and best practices for using agentic AI responsibly in physics research.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chairs: Tanja Hinderer (UU), Béatrice Bonga (RU)

Abstract
Gravitational wave astronomy has opened a fundamentally new window on the universe. Since the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, the field has matured rapidly, revealing populations of merging black holes and neutron stars and inaugurating the era of multi-messenger astronomy. Yet current detectors are approaching the limits of their design sensitivity. The Einstein Telescope (ET) — a proposed third-generation underground gravitational wave observatory — will increase sensitivity by an order of magnitude, unlocking an entirely new scientific landscape: from the equation of state of dense nuclear matter and tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime, to cosmological measurements of the Hubble constant and potentially signals from the early universe.

The timing of this session is deliberate. The Netherlands has placed the Einstein Telescope at the heart of its national science strategy, with the Dutch government designating ET as a national priority and a strong bid underway to site the observatory in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine border region. Dutch institutions are at the forefront of both the scientific and technological development of ET, contributing to mirror coating research, detector characterisation, theoretical modeling, data analysis, and project governance.

This focus session brings together three complementary perspectives — theoretical source modelling, experimental instrumentation, and scientific-strategic leadership — to give the Dutch physics community a timely and coherent picture of the Einstein Telescope: what it will teach us, how we will build it, and the role of the Netherlands in it all. 

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chair: Gary Steele (LEI), Tjerk Oosterkamp (LEI)

Abstract
The study of massive mechanical systems in the quantum regime has been a growing research field ever since the hall mark paper of Bouwmeester and Penrose [Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 130401 (2003)]. In this session we want to bring into focus a new generation of scientists dedicated to this topic, and share the progress in experiments and proposals that aim to observe quantum effects at macroscopic scales. Topics include: macroscopic quantum mechanics, technical challenges, experiments to probe possible collapse models, future proposal to investigate gravitational forces from quantum source masses.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chairs: Paul van der Schoot (TU/e), Lisa Tran (UU)

Abstract
Although liquid crystals constitute a mature and well-established field, liquid-crystalline order continues to emerge in a wide range of systems beyond the traditional liquid crystal community, often without being explicitly recognized as such. Examples include biological matter, active systems, and functional soft materials, where orientational order plays a central role in governing structure and dynamics. This focus session aims to bring together theorists and experimentalists from both within and outside the liquid-crystal field to foster interdisciplinary exchange and stimulate new collaborations. By highlighting common concepts and methodologies across diverse research areas, the session will provide a platform for identifying opportunities and shared challenges. Recent advances in liquid crystals research have had significant impact far beyond the field itself. In particular, active liquid crystal theories have emerged as an important framework for describing out-of-equilibrium collective phenomena, including defect-mediated dynamics and cell organization. At the same time, progress in charge transport in liquid crystalline materials has opened new avenues for functional and responsive materials. These developments are increasingly relevant to areas such as materials learning and design, soft robotics, and biological physics. This session will showcase these advances and explore how liquid crystal concepts can continue to inform our understanding and development of partially ordered materials and technologies.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs 

Chairs: Matrin Lee (TU/e), Sten Vollebregt (TUDelft)

Abstract
Two-dimensional materials and their heterostructures are exciting material systems for studying new physical phenomena. At the same time, these materials hold great promise for future opto-electronic devices, sensors, photonics, and energy conversion and storage.
Several fundamental challenges must be addressed when scaling these materials from exfoliated flakes to wafer-scale production platforms. For instance, the quality of CVD-grown materials is still lower than that of exfoliated flakes. Furthermore, there is a lack of efficient, standardised metrology capable of probing all relevant physical properties of the films.

Finally, many 2D materials are not air stable and are therefore exfoliated and stamped in gloveboxes. Water intercalation between heterostructures or the surface also remains a problem and can severely impact the physical properties. To address these, special infrastructure for processing stacked 2D layers is being considered and constructed worldwide.

In The Netherlands, the National Scalable Atomic Processing line (SAP-NL), funded by a NWO RI:NC, is currently being constructed to address some of these challenges. NWO Physics 2027 provides a forum to review the challenges of scaling 2D materials and to present the national infrastructure being built to address them.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs

Chair: Ioana-Mariuca Ilie (UvA), Johan Padding (TUDelft)

Abstract
Nanoparticles have a complex behavior at soft and hard interfaces, where interfacial interactions govern adhesion, assembly, restructuring, wrapping, transport or even cellular uptake. Understanding how surface chemistry, particle mechanics and environmental properties combine to control these processes is a major challenge in soft condensed matter, biophysics and nanoscience.

This focus session will explore the physical principles governing nanoparticle interactions with membranes, fluids, solids and other structured environments, bringing together theory, simulation and experiment. Particular emphasis will be placed on interfacial assembly, nano-bio interactions and the coupling between chemical heterogeneity and mechanical response. By bridging biological and synthetic systems, the session will highlight common concepts and emerging strategies for understanding and designing nanoparticle behavior across diverse interfacial settings.

13:30 hrs - 14:45 hrs

Chair: Johan Klootwijk (NNV), Gideaon Koekoek (UM)

Abstract
Until only a few years ago, the success of an academic career in the Netherlands was judged almost exclusively on research output and the ability to secure prestigious grants. This narrow focus overlooked the fact that high‑quality science depends just as much on excellent education, responsible and inspiring leadership, and meaningful engagement with society. As a result, many essential academic contributions remained undervalued or invisible in career assessments.
To address this imbalance, all fourteen Dutch universities together with NWO published the landmark position paper Room for Everyone’s Talent in 2019. This document fundamentally redefines what counts in an academic career by placing four roles—research, education, leadership, and societal impact—on equal footing. The associated national program, Rewards & Recognition (R&R), is now being implemented across Dutch universities and knowledge institutes. Its aim is to create a more diverse, inclusive, and sustainable academic system in which individuals and teams can excel in different ways.
In this Focus Session, we will reflect on the necessity and core principles of R&R, examine how the program is currently being implemented, and discuss the challenges and bottlenecks encountered so far. We will also explore how R&R can be used strategically in shaping your own career path—or that of your junior group members—and how a broader recognition of academic contributions can strengthen the physics community in the Netherlands.
To ensure a rich and multifaceted discussion, we are considering inviting approximately four speakers who can offer diverse perspectives on this evolving theme.