Roger Rikken receives IMM thesis award

During the 2018 New Year reception of Institute for Molecules and Materials
(IMM), Roger Rikken received the IMM thesis award for Physics for his thesis "Molding nanovesicles into predictable shapes". His PhD research was focused on the shape transformation of spherical artificial nanovesicles.

Artificial vesicles have interesting properties which make them suitable candidates for capsules for controlled transport of medicine in the human body. In his thesis, Rikken describes several chemical and physical techniques that can be employed to induce controlled shape changes into rods, discs and bowl-shapes. By using the magnetic fields of the High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML), he was able to detect the different shapes and therefore probe the shape changes in real-time. Since the shape of a vesicle is related to its function, these findings are promising for the further development of applications in nanomedicine.

The committee awarded Rikken the price for his outstanding work on the fundamental understanding of the shape transformation of these nanovesicles in an interdisciplinary research environment. During the well-attended New Year reception at IMM, Rikken presented his key results.