Esther Alarcón Lladó new chair of the Dutch Physics Council
Kobus Kuipers passes the torch (/hammer of the chair) to Esther Alarcón Lladó
Professor Esther Alarcón Lladó (1982) will take up her new role as chair of the DPC on 1 February 2025. She will combine this position with her work as group leader 3D Photovoltaics at AMOLF/professor by special appointment in Nano-electrochemistry and Renewable Energy Materials at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Esther will succeed Kobus Kuipers, who will join the board of directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich as of 1 March 2025.
The executive board of the DPC was pleased with her ideas on the future of the DPC and especially appreciates her strategic skills. Esther is excited about this new challenge and looks forward to advancing and strengthening our collective impact.
Esther is installed as executive board (EB) member and chair of the DPC after approval of the Advisory Board (AB). Each institution where academic physics research takes place is represented in the AB. Esther has joined the AB of the DPC in 2023 on behalf of AMOLF. She will be installed as chair and EB member for three years, with the possibility of one renewal of one term of three years. We are happy that the AB has confidence in Esther and supports her appointment.
About Esther Alarcón Lladó
Alarcón Lladó received her PhD from the University of Barcelona in 2009, after which she joined the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore. In 2010, she went to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) for two years on a Marie Curie Fellowship. In 2012, she returned to Europe at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland), where she was appointed Ambizione Energy Fellow in 2014. In 2016, she came to Amsterdam as group leader 3D Photovoltaics at AMOLF, focusing on fundamental research on new, strategically important complex molecule and material. She was named professor of special appointment in Nano-electrochemistry and Renewable Energy Materials in 2023. In addition, Esther plays an important role in promoting diversity at AMOLF. For their efforts the diversity and inclusivity team, headed by Esther, received the biennial NNV Diversity Award in 2022.
