Outreach

It is my belief that in addition to research, science also has the social task of informing everyone who is open to it about the state of affairs. I think this task has only gotten more important in the world of alternative facts and mistrust of experts.

One way to accomplish this goal is for science, and I stress not necessarily every individual scientist, to continue to make an effort to help the layman with curiosity or interest in something.

Under the motivation described above (and because I like doing it) I have participated/am still participating in, among others, the following initiatives:

On paper

• Author of children's book on black holes titled: Emmy and the black hole that stole her sock (Femke en het zwarte gat dat haar sok opvrat). Targeted at children of 4-6 years old and other enthousiasts. 1500 copies published November 2018 in The Netherlands and Belgium. Currently only available in Dutch. 

• For the Dutch website "physics top 10" (natuurkunde top 10) I coedited a comic story on the planets (and a bit more) in our solar system.

• Contributions as editor for physics outreach blog quantumuniverse.nl aimed at high school students, teachers, and other physics enthusiasts (in Dutch):
  Hawking radiation: noise or information? (25-09-2020); Black holes in two dimensions: handy! (04-06-2019); Northern lights: rainbow in the dark (18/02/2019); Penrose process: Milking black holes (16/08/2018); Testing prime numbers using quantum mechanics (01/05/2018); Hydrodynamics (6): fluid gravity duality (23/03/2018); Why the north is not in the north (06/03/2018); Hydrodynamics (3): The Reynolds number (19/09/2017); Hydrodynamics (1): Everything flows! (04/08/2017); Physicist on bikes: why don’t they fall over (30/06/2017); Photon soup: quantum physics at room temperature (02/06/2017); Bose-Einstein condensation: seeing quantum mechanics with the naked eye (19/05/2017); Measuring the ultra-cold: The scientific life of Kamerlingh Onnes (18/04/2017); Black holes in the laboratory (21/03/2017); A tale about Doppler, Buys-Ballot, and a broken horn (03/03/2017); Why you have to listen carefully (to black holes)! (14/02/2017); Fahrenheit and Temperature (17/01/2017); Black holes and the Quadratic formula (06/10/2016)

• Article in Dutch Journal of Physics (NTVN), June 2017 edition: New fluids, New chances (in Dutch)

On stage or video

• I gave lectures about black holes and the solar system at the Dutch languaged elementary school "De Vaarboom" on 18-11-2023.

• I designed and operated a workshop for children at European Researchers Night aimed at children (in Icelandic!) for 5 hours. The title was ‘home made black holes’ and it involving balloons, aluminium foil and understanding how stars die.

• I was a guest at Mýrin/Moorland children's book festival (7-10 October 2021) in Reykjavík.

• Friday 30th of November 2020 I gave a lecture on the recent Nobel prize of physics for the Icelandic scientific association (Vísindafélag Íslands) and the Icelandic physical society (Eðlisfræðifélag Íslands). Missed it? Luckily it was recorded!

• A Brief Musical History of Time (Synthpop meets theoretical physics), Mengi, Reykjavik, Iceland 

• Theatre play focussed on science outreach sciencebattle.nl. Every play, four PhDs battle for a trophy by delivering the best pitch of 10 minutes to a general audience. Performed in the Netherlands in:Cc Amstel, Amsterdam (01/10/2018) Twente University, Enschede (15/01/2018)De Ruchte, Someren (17/11/2017) De Schalm, Veldhoven (26/10/2017) Stadstheater, Zoetermeer (20/10/2017)De Wijer, Boxmeer (18/10/2017)Stadsschouwburg, Utrecht (14/05/2017)Het Evertshuis, Bodegraven (10/02/2017) De Wijer, Boxmeer (18/01/2017)De Veste, Delft (17/01/2017)Walhalla, Rotterdam (21/12/2016) Guiding high schoolers choosing what to study, by giving talk about me researchThe Hague region (06/10/2018)Deurne region (01/03/2018) Rotterdam region (29/11/2017) Winterswijk region (16/11/2017)

• Dutch “meet a scientist day". questions ranging from: “can you see energy under the microscope?'' to “why bicycles don't tip over?". Science museum Nemo (25/06/2017)

• Usefulness of fundamental research, Science meet business, Leiden, the Netherlands (12/10/2017)