Hendrik Casimir Prize 2016 awarded to Andrea Peña and Jorrit Hortensius
At the LION/Sterrewacht new year’s reception, Prof. Tjerk Oosterkamp handed out the 2016 Hendrik Casimir Prize to physics students Andrea Peña (Leiden) and Jorrit Hortensius (Delft). The Casimir Research School yearly awards the Hendrik Casimir Prize to the best MSc students in (Applied) Physics of Leiden University and TU Delft. The prize consists of a certificate and a sum of €750.
The prize is based on the revenues from a donation by the late Josina Casimir-Jonker, wife of the famous Hendrik Casimir. Peña and Hortensius were nominated by a committee formed by Jos Thijssen (director of Master Education Delft), Martin van Exter (Director of Education Leiden), Hara Papathanassiou (study advisor Leiden) and Christophe Danelon (coordinator of the Casmir pre-PhD Master program in Delft). They wrote the following about the two MSc students.
"Andrea is a talented student who has performed very well in her first year. Andrea has first joined the Physics program as an Erasmus exchange student from Spain. She adapted remarkably well and even followed a MSc course and carried out a successful research project in her BSc. She has a low key approach and proceeds carefully, delivering high performance while never overstating her capacity or achievements. Moreover, she is a very friendly person, always ready to help and share her experience with others. In the current semester she has been carrying out a project at ARCNL (local supervisor D. Bouwmeester) on investigating potential correlation of the amplitude of THz pulses from a two-color laser with the excited modes of an air-plasma mix."
"Jorrit completed a double bachelor programme in Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics with both diplomas awarded ‘cum laude’ (with distinction). His performance in the master programme is equally stellar. Jorrit usually does his coursework with a group of about five very good students in the master Applied physics and these students all have an exemplary working attitude which, together with their talent for physics and math, has a stimulating effect on a wide fraction of their cohort. Jorrit emanates enthusiasm for physics and for the courses he takes. He participates in activities of the student physics society VvTP."
