Former PhD students Anne Meeussen (Mechanical Metamaterials group) and Mario Avellaneda Sarrio (Biophysics group) are amongst the 31 researchers who have recently received a Rubicon grant from NWO. The Rubicon program gives young, highly promising researchers the opportunity to gain international research experience. With a Rubicon grant they can spend up to 24 months doing research at a foreign institution.
Mario Avellaneda Sarrio will use the grant to investigate bioelectric patrolling against pathogens at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Vienna. Immune cells need to navigate through the human body in search of pathogens, yet how they can migrate so efficiently remains unclear. The researcher will elucidate how local electric potential changes in cell membrane assist steering of immune cells during migration
Anne Meeussen will work on targeted design of shape-morphing materials at Harvard University in Boston. Shape-changing materials—from tents to solar sails—are useful, but hard to design. Based on experiments, the researcher models such shape-morphing materials. The researcher uses this model to map out design rules, which help scientists create new shape-morphing structures.
Read the NWO press release
