About us

Prof. Gertjan Koster

GertjanKoster

Visiting Professor
Full Professor of Inorganic Materials Science

Biography

In 1999 Prof. Dr. Ir. G. (Gertjan) Koster did his PhD on “Artificial layered complex oxides by pulsed laser deposition“. In that same year, he moved to the US to join the Kapitulnik-Geballe-Beasley (KGB) group at the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University. In 2007, he joined the Inorganic Materials Science group, MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, where since December 2019 he has been full professor. In 2014 he was a visiting professor at QMI-UBC in Vancouver and since 2018 he is a visiting professor of advanced materials department K9 at the Joseph Stephan Institute in Slovenia. His research focuses on the structure-property relation of atomically engineered complex (nano)materials, especially thin film ceramic oxides. For the thin film synthesis, he developed the first time-resolved RHEED-system, operating at high pressures up to 100 Pa during pulsed laser deposition. Current research includes the growth and study of artificial materials, the physics of reduced scale (nanoscale) materials, metal-insulator transitions and in situ spectroscopic characterization. Application areas are functional materials for green ICT, neuromorphic computing, integration of oxides with CMOS, model systems for operando studies of oxide interfaces using X-ray spectroscopies or STEM-EELS (e.g., batteries, catalysis). Since May 2018 he has been visiting scientist in Advanced Materials Department K-9 at Jožef Stefan Institute and associate professor at Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School. 

Education

2019  Full Professor ‘Physics of Inorganic nanomaterials’, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente 
2014  Associate Professor, Inorganic Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente
1999  Doctorate, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, Title Thesis: “Artificially layered oxides by pulsed laser deposition” 
1995  Master's, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Title Thesis: “The validity of refinement models used in crystallography”

Other experience

2018-             Associate professor, Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Ljubljana
2018-             Visiting professor, Advanced Materials Department, JSI
2014              Visiting professor QMI, UBC, Vancouver
2011-2014   Associate professor (UHD), Inorganic Materials Science, TNW, UT
2007-2011   Assistant professor (UD), Inorganic Materials Science, TNW, UT
2006-2007   Lecturer and senior scientist, Geballe Lab. for Adv. Materials, Stanford University
2005-2007   Lab director Surface Science Laboratory, Stanford Nano-characterization Laboratory
1999-2006   Visiting scholar/Research associate, Stanford University and UT
1999        Post Doc, Low Temperature Division, Dept. of Applied Physics, UT

Activities

• Member NWO-ENW working groups ‘Fundamentals& Methods of Chemistry’ and ‘Chemistry of materials’
• Member board 4TU Materials
• Principal designer and coordinator Master specialization TNW/ET-‘Materials Science and Engineering’
• ‘Leergang Onderwijskundig Leiderschap’(educational leadership training), University of Utrecht (2016-2017)


Scholarships and prizes

2001  NWO TALENT stipend, (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research; equiv. to Rubicon)
2002  VENI scholarship, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO-STW
2012  Opleidings Onderwijsprijs Advanced Technology
2012  Educational prize ‘Advanced Technology’, University of Twente
2019  Van Gogh Scholarship (Nuffic) exchange with CNRS Thales (Prof. Manuel Bibes)

Research interests

- oxide thin film meso-materials
- oxide thin film growth
- in situ spectroscopic characterization