Outreach

After I hosted a masterclass in 2018 (see below), I was invited as a plenary speaker in 2019. We discussed the origin of life and the way in which we attempt to synthesize life de novo. Photo by: Freudenthal instituut

In August 2018 I gave a short lecture at a locally organized festival about our quest to create synthetic life, and why that shouldn't scare you as much as it probably does.

Click the image above to view the archived copy of our Science AMA on Reddit (archived by The Winnower).

Engaging people with science is not always an easy task, especially when it relates to theoretical chemistry. Together with one of my colleagues, we performed a few experiments that are not just educational, but also a lot of fun!

The Woudschoten Chemie Conferentie (2018) is a conference aimed at chemistry high-school teachers. Here, they meet each other, discuss subject content and follow a plethora of lectures and masterclasses. I gave a masterclass about systems chemistry and self-replication.

The Rijksuniversiteit Groningen organizes continued education programmes for chemistry high-school teachers. This helps them keep their knowledge updated and allows new research and results to be used in lessons.

Getting involved with science should start at a young age. I gave a few guest lectures at an elementary school (de Borgmanschool) about bacteria, where we performed experiments with agar plates.

I designed this setup that was used in the "Nobel Science" exposition in the University museum, which shows how we can simulate "death" in self-replicating systems.