Weekend van de Wetenschap

Weekend van de Wetenschap!

A few of our PhD candidates and tenure track assistant professors hosted three fun and inspiring activities during the Weekend of the Wetenschap. What did they come up with? Let’s see:
At Groningen University George Hermens, Hanneke Siebe, Michael Lerch and Thomas Freese introduced the audience to NATURE AS A BASIS FOR GREEN CHEMISTRY. They showed how you can make paint using plant materials. That instead of coal or oil you can also use light as an energy source. That you can use scents to create new materials. And even that you can use candy as a base for paint! Get an impression of the day.

At Utrecht University Huygen Jöbsis (UU) together with Nicole van Leeuwen (UvA) used Lego to show that MOLECULES ARE LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS: you can stick them together to create new or larger structures. You can build really cool things with very small pieces but such small building blocks need some help to come together. They showed the audience that you can use a catalyst to do that and also explained what a catalyst is.

PLASTIC FANTASTIC? Suzan Schoemaker (UU), Ina Vollmer (UU) and Kelly Brouwer (UU) showed that if we have more opportunities to reuse plastic, less would be thrown away. Plastic then becomes valuable! They dove into in to the world of plastic and chemistry with the audience! RTV Utrecht came by and filmed it all.

Thank you all for your great contributions! Also Daan Groefsema (UU) and Nicole Imholz (RUG) who also assisted to this Weekend van de Wetenschap.