Professor Jennifer Herek (b. 1968) has been appointed the new Professor of Optical Techniques and Biomolecular Systems at the faculty of Science and Technology (TNW). Herek, originally from the United States, is also connected to the AMOLF-institute in Amsterdam.
The new professor succeeds Niek van Hulst, who chose Barcelona over Enschede in 2005. `She is an asset to our faculty', says Alfred Bliek, Dean of TNW. `With her coming here we hope to regain some dynamism in the group. Optical techniques delivers an important part of the physics education. On top of that, Herek can serve as a role model, to attract more female students to our faculty.'
Herek graduated with honors in chemistry at the Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She obtained her doctorate at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. In 2002 she became project leader of the BioMolecular Control Group of the FOM-institute for Atomic- and Molecular physics AMOLF in Amsterdam. The new professor has a preliminary part-time appointment at the UT, which will be extended to full-time in autumn 2007.
Trans. H. van Dorp
