Professor Laurens Kuipers, better known as Kobus Kuipers, was appointed as a new member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich on 1 March 2025, taking over as head of Scientific Division I (VS-I). The 57-year-old Dutchman is regarded as a pioneer in the field of nano-optics, which is concerned with the investigation and manipulation of light on the nanoscale.
Kuipers comes to Jülich from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where he was head of the Quantum Nanoscience department for eight years. He was also a director at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience for four years. The experimental physicist obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Amsterdam before a research stay took him to the University of Cambridge, where he investigated the deposition and dynamics of mass-selected nanoclusters as part of an Oppenheimer Fellowship. Further highlights of his research career included professorships at the universities of Utrecht, Twente, and Amsterdam. In 2003, he moved to Dutch research institute AMOLF, where he became head of the Center for Nanophotonics in 2006. AMOLF is a national research institute under the auspices of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and conducts basic research in physics and complex matter.
Kuipers now has a new task ahead of him at Jülich. "I am fascinated by the broad scientific spectrum at FZJ as a whole, but also in Scientific Division I specifically, which ranges from brain research to quantum computing. Having all this in one place at Jülich is very special," says Kuipers. At Forschungszentrum Jülich, he will be responsible for the following institutes:
- Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI)
- Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS)
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS)
- Ernst Ruska-Centre (ER-C)
- Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI)
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM)
- Helmholtz Nano Facility (HNF)
The "professor of light"
Kobus Kuipers is a pioneer in the field of nano-optics, which is concerned with the investigation and manipulation of light on the nanoscale. Kuipers caused a stir in the scientific community with his measurement of slow light. That's why he has sometimes been jokingly referred to as the "professor of light". His research has focused on the behaviour of light in nanostructures. Depending on the material and/or structure, light behaves differently; it can, for example, slow down and even stop. This interaction between material and light can therefore be controlled. "This holds great potential for developing more powerful chips, but also for reducing the power consumption of chips," says Kuipers.
Renowned scientist
Back in 2003, Kuipers received a prestigious Vici grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for research into nonlinear optics on the nanoscale. The funding is awarded to outstanding senior researchers who conduct innovative research and have also made a significant contribution to supporting early-career scientists. In 2013, he received an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. He has been made a Member of Merit of the Netherlands' Physical Society in 2016. In 2019, he received the Physica Prize, the highest award for physicists in the Netherlands. He has been founding chair of the Dutch Physics Council since 2020. Will he miss research work in his new role on the Board of Directors? "Oh yes, part of me will certainly miss active research," says Kuipers. "But over the years, science management has become ever more appealing to me. I like creating conditions that set other researchers up for success."
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
In addition to scientific excellence, Kuipers brings to Jülich extensive management experience from his work on national and international management and supervisory bodies. He believes that great scientific progress is often the result of creative collaboration between different disciplines and domains. "The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts," he says. This is why the interdisciplinary nature of Forschungszentrum Jülich appeals to him. "In my view, FZJ is also ideally positioned to pave new ways to innovation in Europe together with other key players," says Kuipers. "This includes setting the agenda on important topics, such as: How should artificial intelligence be used in Europe in the future? How can we make society's hunger for information cost less energy? And what can biology teach us about information processing?"
Kuipers sees great potential for new interdisciplinary connections within Jülich's research priority of Information - for example, between neuroscience, high-performance computing, data science, material sciences for the IT of tomorrow, quantum science, and neuromorphic computing. However, he also sees opportunities for inspiration and innovation across the different disciplines and research priorities, for example through the new possibilities that JUPITER - Europe's first exascale computer - will open up for simulations and AI applications in energy research.
In a video, Kobus Kuipers explains his research into light and its potential:
