Advent calendar - December 20st - Johan Holstein
In the Zernike Institute Advent Calendar, we are presenting 24 short spotlights in December. In these specials, we highlight PhD students, postdocs, and technicians of our research groups - providing a glimpse into their typical day at work. In Episode 20 meet Johan Holstein, research technician in the Physics of Nanodevices group and coordinator of the Zernike NanoLab Groningen.

Thinking back about my time in school, an event that made a huge impression on me was the first moon landing in 1969. While I quickly realized that the juvenile dream of becoming an astronaut was not a realistic one, the technology that made this historical event possible continued to fascinate me. At home I started building my own electronic devices, and I've continued doing so since. I have been lucky enough to even turn my passion into a career, and even 50 years later there are still a lot of parallels between my work at the university as research technician and the research behind the Apollo program.
We deal with vacuum technology, electronics and programming, and despite the unprecedented technological advances, the underlying principles remain the same: we always aim to make processes better and more efficient. The most important lesson I have learnt during my time at the university is that we come the furthest when we work together.
Contact: Johan Holstein
Last modified: | 13 December 2021 12.19 p.m. |
More news
-
24 March 2025
UG 28th in World's Most International Universities 2025 rankings
The University of Groningen has been ranked 28th in the World's Most International Universities 2025 by Times Higher Education. With this, the UG leaves behind institutions such as MIT and Harvard. The 28th place marks an increase of five places: in...
-
05 March 2025
Women in Science
The UG celebrates International Women’s Day with a special photo series: Women in Science.
-
16 December 2024
Jouke de Vries: ‘The University will have to be flexible’
2024 was a festive year for the University of Groningen. In this podcast, Jouke de Vries, the chair of the Executive Board, looks back.