Special guests tour new “Ion Interactions” laboratory
ARCNL group leader Ronnie Hoekstra’s lab has found a home in the University of Groningen’s new Feringa Building. Named for Nobel Laureate Prof. Ben Feringa, the building’s grand opening on June 17 brought special guests to the lab, including Constantijn van Oranje (Special Envoy at Techleap), René Paas (‘Commissaris van de Koning’) and Ben Feringa himself.
“A recognition of our achievements in research”
After an Open House of lab tours, interactive demonstrations and more, the University of Groningen hosted an invite-only official opening ceremony and reception to celebrate the new Feringa Building of the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
ARCNL group leader Ronnie Hoekstra’s new lab was honored by an extensive visit from Constantijn van Oranje, Special Envoy at Techleap. He was accompanied by the King’s Commissioner in Groningen, Mr. drs. René Paas; the governing board of the university, Jouke de Vries, Jacquelien Scherpen and Hans Biemans; the dean Prof. Joost Frenken; and the namesake of the building, Nobel Laureate Prof. Ben Feringa. The group was guided by the director of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, Prof. Moniek Tromp.
The esteemed guests were impressed by the spacious and light laboratory, which hosts a globally unique ion facility. They showed great interest in the group’s research, as well as the collaboration between the university and private industry.
Ronnie Hoekstra: “The visit by Constantijn van Oranje feels like a recognition of our achievements in research, which ventures deep into the quantum world but is triggered by questions floating around in the high-tech environment of ASML.”
Ion interactions matter
Ronnie Hoekstra’s research group investigates ion interactions with matter. As a part of public-private partnership ARCNL, the team performs fundamental research motivated by the research interests of ASML and university stakeholders. In particular, the Ion Interactions group studies the atomic-scale phenomena of tin ions, or charged atoms, such as how they react with hydrogen gas molecules and metallic surfaces. From this, they can better understand the tin plasma sources that nanolithography machines use to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light for computer chip manufacturing.
See it for yourself
For a tour of the new Ion Interactions lab, watch the video (in Dutch) from RTV Noord featuring group members Emiel de Wit and Mart Salverda: Feringa Building van RUG officieel geopend: ‘Verhuizing was behoorlijk spannend’ – RTV Noord
