Group
Currently I am a professor at the Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity of the University of Groningen. Before coming to Groningen in 2009, I had a group at the VU University Amsterdam.
Since 2001 I have supervised 12 Ph.D. students, 21 M.Sc. students, and 34 B.Sc. students (the latter not listed here).
At present (September 2024) my group consists of the following people:
- Luca Maxia [Postdoc] 2023-2024
- Jelle Bor [Ph.D. student in Groningen & Orsay] on: Quarkonium production at EIC and LHC (shared supervision with Jean-Philippe Lansberg). Defense foreseen in 2024/5.
- Magnus Petz [M.Sc. student] on: Global minima of scalar potentials of SO(10) GUTs (2024-2025)
- Jesse Mulder [M.Sc. student] on: The Quarkyonic phase of finite density QCD (2024-2025)
Past members of my group in Groningen:
- Daniel van Dyk [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2024: "Calculating Transition Rates via Quantum Normal Forms"
- Tom van Rees [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2024: "Finding Global Point Symmetries of Partial Differential Equations"
- Jetze Keuning [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2024: "Leptoquarks in an SO(10) Grand Unified Theory"
- Chalis Setyadi [Ph.D. student] Ph.D. degree December 2023: "Studies of Generalized Transverse Momentum Dependent Gluon Distributions in Diffractive Processes". Currently he has a position at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
- Giovanni van Marion [M.Sc. and Ph.D. student] M.Sc. thesis on "Sphalerons and the vacuum structure of gauge theories"; unfinished Ph.D. project on transition rates (2020-2023, co-supervision with Holger Waalkens)
- Gefré Wortelboer [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2023: "Searching for TeV-scale leptoquarks in Grand Unified Theories"
- Eric Pap [M.Sc. and Ph.D. student] Ph.D. degree October 2022: "On the Geometry of Adiabatic Quantum Mechanics" (shared supervision with Holger Waalkens). M.Sc. thesis on "Exceptional points and PT symmetry"
- Sander Andela [M.Sc. student] Finished October 2022: "A QCD investigation of the proton mass"
- Robbert Scholtens [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2022: "A Transparent View on Resonances; Resonances, Transparencies, and their relation in 1D quantum scattering" (shared supervision with Holger Waalkens). Now a PhD student on the overlap of astronomy and mathematics.
- Luca Maxia [guest Ph.D. student from Cagliari U.] November 2021 - May 2022: TMD shape functions in quarkonium production
- Willem de Kok [M.Sc. student] Finished August 2021: “The relation between Feynman diagrams and Kontsevich graphs in non-commutative star products” (shared supervision with Arthemy Kiselev). Now a Junior Scientist Innovator at TNO.
- Ruud Peeters [Ph.D. student] Ph.D. degree May 2021: "Aspects of fine-tuning in theories with extended scalar sectors" Now AI Research Engineer at Screenpoint Medical, Nijmegen.
- Fabian IJpelaar [M.Sc. student] Finished January 2021: "Entropy in Physics: An Overview of Definitions and Applications in Quantum Mechanics." Now a PhD student in the Artificial Intelligence department.
- Simone Biondini [Postdoctoral FSE fellow] 2018-2020, now on a 5-year fellowship at University of Basel.
- Florent Scarpa [Ph.D. student in Orsay & Groningen] Ph.D. Degree June 2020: "Studies and applications of linearly polarized gluons at LHC" (shared supervision with Jean-Philippe Lansberg). Now a data scientist in Toulouse.
- Jelle Thole [M.Sc. student] Finished January 2019: "Family symmetry Grand Unified Theories". Has obtained a job in consultancy at Bain & Company.
- Carlo Flore [guest Ph.D. student from Cagliari U.] October - December 2018, working on: TMD phenomenology
- Tom van Daal [Ph.D. student in Amsterdam] Ph.D. degree December 2018: "Mapping the internal structure of hadrons through color and spin effects" (shared supervision with Piet Mulders). Now a Senior Data Scientist at ResMed, San Diego.
- Tomas Heldeweg [M.Sc. student] Finished August 2018: "Sphaleron solutions and their phenomenology in the electroweak theory".
- Anno Touwen [M.Sc. student] Finished August 2018: "Extending Symmetries of the Standard Model towards Grand Unification". Now Ph.D. student in Groningen, working on the eEDM experiment at the VSI.
- Sybrand Zeinstra [M.Sc. student] Finished August 2018: "Studies of fine-tuning in extended Higgs models". Now Ph.D. student in Münster.
- Susan van der Woude [M.Sc. student] Finished July 2017: "Radiative Symmetry Breaking in minimal Conformally Invariant extensions of the Standard Model". Now Ph.D. student in Heidelberg.
- Wouter Dekens [M.Sc. and Ph.D. student] Ph.D. degree October 2015: "Discrete symmetry breaking beyond the Standard Model". M.Sc. project on "A4 family symmetry". Moved on to become postdoc in Los Alamos, initially on a Rubicon grant. Postdoc at the University of San Diego and moving on to Seattle for a 5-year INT fellow position.
Past members of my group at the VU Amsterdam in the period 2001-2013:
- Wilco den Dunnen [M.Sc. and Ph.D. student] Ph.D. degree February 2013: "Polarization effects in proton-proton collisions within the Standard Model and beyond". M.Sc. project on "Vacuum structure of the strong interactions with a Peccei-Quinn symmetry". Went on to become a postdoc at the University of Tübingen. Now at Ernst & Young.
- Jorn Boomsma [Ph.D. student] Degree June 2010: "Effects of instanton interactions on the phases of quark matter". Now a high school teacher.
- Ana Mizher [guest Ph.D. student from Rio de Janeiro Federal U.] March 2009 - February 2010, worked on: Phase transitions in quark matter.
- Erik Wessels [Ph.D. student] Degree June 2009: "Signatures of gluon saturation in high energy scattering". Now a high school teacher.
- Andre Utermann [Postdoc] 2006-2008, became postdoc at University of Regensburg, moved on to work at a large life insurance company in Germany.
- John Hug [M.Sc. student] 2007-2008, worked on: Color Glass Condensate. Moved back to the U.S. before finishing.
- Sjoerd Hardeman [M.Sc. student] (shared supervision with Rudy Wijnands (University of Amsterdam)) Degree April 2007: "Quark matter influence on the observational properties of compact stars". Went on to do a Ph.D. at Leiden University, sadly passed away July 7, 2011.
- Harmen Warringa [Ph.D. student] Degree February 2006: "Thermodynamics of QCD-inspired theories". Postdoc in Trondheim (NTNU), at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and at J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. Currently app and webpage developer.
- Pedro Jimenez Delgado [M.Sc. student] (shared supervision with Piet Mulders) Degree June 2004: "Exotic pentaquark baryons in a quark cluster model". Obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Dortmund, then postdoc at the ITP, University of Zurich, and Jefferson Laboratory. Now a Quantitative Finance Analyst in London.
- Paul Becherer [M.Sc. student] Degree August 2003: "Chiral symmetry restoration in linear sigma models at finite temperature". Obtained a Ph.D. at Leiden University in 2008. Now Development Scientist at Culgi.
- Max Baak [M.Sc. student] Degree November 2001: "Anomalous W-Fermion Couplings; Theory and Bounds". Obtained a Ph.D. in experimental physics (VU/Nikhef) in 2007, became staff member at CERN, senior manager at KPMG and now at ING.