Research Engineer - Laser and Optical Systems

Join Us!
OpticsFoundry is developing technology for the robotic manufacture of compact, stable optical circuits for quantum technology and other demanding applications. Our optical circuit boards are already used in the AQuRA optical lattice clock; the next challenge is to broaden the platform to lasers, optical cavities, frequency references, and other active systems. Working at the boundary between the University of Amsterdam and OpticsFoundry, and in collaboration with the Nonlinear Nanophotonics group at the University of Twente, you will help turn advanced laboratory optics into repeatable, manufacturable products. This is an opportunity to join at an early stage, shape both the technology and the way we build it, and—if there is a strong mutual fit—progressively move from UvA into a core engineering role at OpticsFoundry over the course of the project.

This is what you will do
You will take ownership of challenging engineering problems from first idea to tested hardware. In a small, fast-moving team, you will design experiments, build prototypes, measure performance, find failure modes, and iterate until a system is robust enough for production and customer use.
Your work will include:

• designing and building compact optical circuits that incorporate gain media, piezo and motorized actuators, optical cavities, spectroscopy cells, photonic integrated circuits, and related components;
• developing robotic methods to place, align, bond, and integrate optical components reproducibly;
• building and benchmarking complete systems, such as laser sources and laser-frequency locks;
• designing or integrating the electronics, instrumentation, and control software needed to operate and test those systems;
• translating prototypes into scalable production processes, fixtures, test procedures, and clear technical documentation; and
• working directly with researchers and early customers to understand requirements and deliver practical, reliable hardware.

The role offers substantial freedom and responsibility. You will be encouraged to propose solutions, make design decisions, and develop new technical capabilities—not simply execute a predefined research plan.

What we ask of you
We are looking for a curious, pragmatic engineer who enjoys difficult technical puzzles and wants to help grow a young deep-tech company. You do not need to match every item below. We would particularly like to hear from you if you bring:

• a Master's degree, PhD, or equivalent professional experience in applied physics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, mechatronics, or a related field;
• hands-on experience building and troubleshooting optical systems, ideally involving lasers, precision alignment, interferometry, spectroscopy, cavities, or photonic systems;
• enough experience with electronics, instrumentation, and control software to work effectively across discipline boundaries;
• an experimental mindset: you turn open-ended problems into testable ideas, learn quickly from data, and keep going when the first design does not work;
• the initiative to own projects, communicate clearly in English, and collaborate closely in a small team. Experience with automation, optomechanical design, PCB design, embedded systems, Python or LabVIEW, precision assembly, or design for manufacture is welcome, but not required.

This is what we offer you
You will work on advanced optical hardware with a short path from experiment to product, combining the technical environment of the University of Amsterdam with the pace, responsibility, and customer focus of an early-stage startup. You will have direct access to optical laboratories, robotic manufacturing tools, academic collaborators, and the founders of OpticsFoundry. The role is designed to offer growing responsibility and, subject to performance, mutual fit, and company development, a gradual transition toward employment at OpticsFoundry over the next two years.
We offer a temporary employment contract for 38 hours per week for a period of 12 months. The preferred starting date is as soon as possible. The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between €3,706 and €5,760 (scale 10). This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance. The applicable UFO job profile Education and Research Technician-O profile 2 is applicable . For this position we can not sponsor a visa. Due to Dutch legislation, the UvA is for non-scientific positions obliged to recruit within the EU. If you are not a EU-citizen (including Norway and Switzerland) please do not apply for this vacancy.

The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

You will work in this team
The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 8,000, as well as 1,800 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute of Physics (IoP) of the Faculty of Science combines the Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute (WZI), the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITFA) and the Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEF) and is one of the large research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. The Van der Waals - Zeeman Institute for Experimental Physics (IoP-WZI) is part of the IoP and home to three research clusters: Quantum Gases & Quantum Information (QG&QI), Quantum Materials (QMat), and Soft Matter (SM).

You will work in the Strontium Quantum Gases Group, part of the QG&QI cluster and headed by Prof. Dr. Florian Schreck, in close collaboration with OpticsFoundry. The group develops optical systems for ultracold-strontium experiments in quantum sensing, many-body physics, and quantum computing. This gives you a demanding real-world test environment for new hardware, while OpticsFoundry provides the route to manufacturing and customers. You will work closely with physicists, engineers, external collaborators, and users, with room to influence technical priorities and product direction.

Want to know more about our organisation? Read more about working at the University of Amsterdam.

PhD Position on Predictive Plant–Microbiome–Pathogen Interactions

You will join the Plant-Microbe Interactions group and work within the NWO Vici project ResistoBiome: Predictive microbiome modelling for resilient and sustainable potato cropping systems.

In this project, you will investigate why the same pathogen can cause severe disease in one microbial environment but establish poorly in another. You will work with a unique collection of 100 Dutch agricultural soil microbiomes and grow potato plants in the automated phenotyping facilities of the Netherlands Plant Eco-phenotyping Centre (NPEC). Using high-resolution imaging, you will follow plant growth, physiology and disease development after infection with Phytophthora or Ralstonia.

You will combine these phenotyping data with bacterial and fungal microbiome profiles to build predictive models of pathogen invasion and plant performance. Working in close collaboration with with a postdoctoral researcher and a fellow PhD candidate, you will identify microbial taxa and microbial interactions that are most strongly associated with disease resistance or susceptibility.

A key part of your project will be to move from prediction to biological understanding. You will select promising microbes emerging from the models, isolate and experimentally test them, and investigate how they influence pathogen establishment and plant health. This will allow you to ask not only which microbes predict disease outcomes, but also why they matter.

During your PhD, you will:

• perform large-scale potato experiments using 100 contrasting soil microbiomes;
• use automated high-throughput phenotyping to quantify plant growth, physiology and disease development;
• profile root and leaf microbiomes using amplicon sequencing;
• analyse integrated microbiome and phenotyping datasets;
• contribute to machine-learning models predicting pathogen invasion success and plant resilience;
• identify microbial taxa and interactions associated with contrasting disease outcomes;
• isolate and experimentally validate selected candidate microbes;
• design follow-up experiments to understand how protective microbes influence plant–pathogen interactions;
• collaborate closely with researchers in microbiology, plant pathology, phenotyping, bioinformatics and predictive modelling.

The project gives you the opportunity to work across scales: from thousands of plants and complex microbiome datasets to mechanistic experiments with individual microbial isolates.

PhD in Light-Driven Synthesis and Recycling of Bio-Based Polymers

Your research challenge

In this PhD project, you will develop innovative light-driven strategies for the synthesis and chemical recycling of polymers derived from renewable resources. The project combines fundamental photochemistry with polymer science and materials chemistry, giving you the opportunity to explore how concepts developed at the molecular level can be translated into functional polymeric materials.

You will design and synthesize polymers from a range of renewable feedstocks using mild and selective photochemical methods. By studying the underlying reaction mechanisms and photochemical design principles, you will gain a deep understanding of how light can be used to control polymer formation and structure.

A key focus of the project will be chemical recycling. You will develop photocatalytic approaches to selectively break down the polymers into their original building blocks, enabling the recovery and reuse of valuable bio-based feedstocks. In this way, the project aims to establish more circular strategies for the use of renewable carbon resources.

Beyond polymer synthesis and recycling, you will investigate the use of these materials in durable and mechanically robust composites. This will allow you to connect fundamental molecular design with real-world materials performance and explore how sustainable polymers can be integrated into advanced applications.

By bringing together photochemistry, polymer chemistry, recycling, and materials science, you will contribute to the development of new approaches for designing polymers with built-in sustainability and circularity.

An interdisciplinary and international environment
You will conduct your research under the supervision of Prof. Fabian Eisenreich in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology. You will join the Polymer Performance Materials research group, which focuses on sustainable polymer chemistry. You will also become part of the interdisciplinary Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, which connects TU/e researchers working across polymer science and related fields.

The position is funded through the EuroTech programme, which promotes research collaboration between leading technical universities across Europe. As part of this project, you will work closely with a research partner at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The project includes a six-month research stay at DTU, giving you the opportunity to work in an international research environment, exchange ideas with collaborators, and broaden your scientific expertise. Through this network, you will develop new skills, build valuable academic connections, and explore how your research can contribute to the development of future sustainable technologies.

Working at TU/e
At TU/e, you will work in an environment that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on mentality. You will receive personal guidance while having room to develop your own ideas, ambitions, and talents. Together with supportive colleagues from different disciplines and backgrounds, you will push the boundaries of sustainable polymer chemistry and contribute to research with clear societal relevance.

Ideal start date: November 01 2026

Hoogleraar Mondzorg en Maatschappij

Functie
Hoe leiden we de mondzorgprofessional van de toekomst op? Hoe zorgen we ervoor dat mondzorg toegankelijk blijft voor een steeds diversere en ouder wordende bevolking?

Voor deze belangrijke maatschappelijke en academische opgave zoeken wij een hoogleraar Mondzorg en Maatschappij.

Als hoogleraar Mondzorg en Maatschappij geef je richting aan de verdere ontwikkeling van het tandheelkundeonderwijs binnen het Radboudumc. Je bent een inspirerend onderwijsleider die een visie heeft op preventie, kwaliteit van zorg, professionaliteit en samenwerking binnen de mondzorg én daarbuiten. Je verbindt onderwijs, onderzoek en praktijk en levert daarmee een directe bijdrage aan de opleiding van de mondzorgprofessionals van morgen.

Je werkt samen met bevlogen collega's binnen de afdeling Tandheelkunde, onderzoekers van onder andere de afdeling IQ Health en partners uit het werkveld, zoals beroepsverenigingen, kennisinstituten en zorgorganisaties. Daarmee krijg je de unieke mogelijkheid om zowel binnen als buiten het Radboudumc impact te maken op de toekomst van de mondzorg.

Wat ga je doen?

• Je geeft leiding aan de leeropdracht Mondzorg en Maatschappij en draagt bij aan de strategische ontwikkeling van onderwijs, onderzoek en maatschappelijke impact binnen de afdeling Tandheelkunde.
• Je ontwikkelt en vernieuwt onderwijs binnen de bachelor- en masteropleiding Tandheelkunde, met specifieke aandacht voor professionaliteit, samenwerking, (collectieve) preventie, kwaliteit van zorg en publieke mondgezondheid.
• Je vervult een leidende rol op curriculum niveau en in onderwijsbeleid, curriculumontwikkeling en onderwijsinnovatie.
• Je begeleidt studenten, promovendi, docenten en onderzoekers in hun ontwikkeling.
• Je initieert en superviseert onderzoek op het gebied van mondzorgprofessionals, publieke mondgezondheid, kwaliteit van mondzorg, preventie of implementatie van richtlijnen.
• Je versterkt de verbinding tussen onderwijs, onderzoek en praktijk en bouwt aan samenwerkingen binnen en buiten het Radboudumc. Belangrijke samenwerkingspartners zijn de opleiding mondzorg van de HAN University of Applied sciences, de mondzorgkoepels, het kennisinstituut KIMO en de wetenschappelijke verenigingen.
• Je vertegenwoordigt de afdeling in nationale en internationale netwerken en draagt bij aan de ontwikkeling van de mondzorg van de toekomst.

Optimising Cancer follow-up using mathematical models and AI

Background

Follow-up after primary cancer treatment is, in several tumour streams, more intensive than the evidence currently supports. Where the aim is recurrence detection, frequent and intensive surveillance shows limited benefit for clinical outcomes while imposing psychological burden and out-of-pocket costs on patients and consuming scarce professional capacity.

These pressures are intensifying. Survivor numbers are rising, early-onset cancers extend the survivorship horizon, treatment is shifting from surgery towards systemic therapy, and complex care is concentrating in fewer specialised centres. Deciding where surveillance capacity is best spent has therefore become a question of workforce sustainability as much as one of clinical effectiveness.

Aim and objectives
The project aims to use modelling to propose risk-based follow-up strategies that match surveillance intensity to individual recurrence risk. It pursues three objectives.

• Optimising follow-up. Determining when, for how long and in what form patients should be seen, and identifying the factors — age, tumour stage, molecular profile, treatment received — on which stratification can be based. Given clinical and molecular characteristics of many tumours, a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) is a preferred approach.
• Defining successful implementation. Engaging patients to understand their concerns and preferences, and assessing the clinical feasibility of alternative follow-up arrangements, including nurse-led, physician-led and online delivery, with attention to professional roles, responsibilities and workload.
• Data and model requirements. Identifying suitable data sources such as the cancer registry, specifying the model along clinical, operational and organisational dimensions through participatory design, and building an extrapolation framework that transfers findings from large datasets to low-volume tumour streams.

Approach
The work combines several strands. A systematic review with LLM-assisted extraction of policy documents updates the international consensus on follow-up and risk stratification. Second, secondary data sources (e.g., cancer registry) will be used to map variation in current practice, estimate (yearly) recurrence incidence, and define the risk factors on which cancer follow-up can be stratified. Focus groups with patients establish what implementation would require of them and focus groups with professionals address feasibility and their own role. These feed a model whose outputs cover capacity and resource use alongside clinical outcomes, with risk factors and organisational constraints — hub-and-spoke versus centralised care, nurse-led delivery — entering as explicit variables.

Colorectal, lung and bladder cancer are the primary candidate tumour streams, with prostate and breast under consideration. Ideally, the project approach and results should be generalisable to other tumour streams.