M.D. Homsma MSc (Martijn)

Curiousity killed the cat, or in my case a lot of gizmos. Disassembling and (hopefully) reassembling objects in order to learn how they worked was a hobby of mine before I knew what that word actually meant. You could say that understanding devices and materials has been a life long passion of mine; starting with regular objects like clocks or pens, then moving smaller and smaller things. Questions about "why is hair so hard to break?" slowly changed into "how does a microchip actually function?" This facination in the very tiny inspired me to study Applied Physics (BSc) and Nanotechnology (MSc) here at the University of Twente where I learned both how to think like a scientist, but also to appreciate the subtlety of the nano-world.

Having finished my Master's at XUV Optics on a survey study on the effects of entropy against oxide progression in thin film alloys, I was then assigned as a PhD candidate on the same topic - continuing to work on understanding the role of entropy and various other material properties in thin film alloys and compounds. I do this work along with prof. dr. Marcelo Ackermann (XUV), dr.ir. Robbert van de Kruijs (XUV) and dr.ir. Wesley van den Beld (XUV) - dubbed "Project ATOM".