Short summaries

Short summary of Anouk Goossens her Master's thesis
“ Investigating Nb-doped SrTiO3 Schottky Junctions as a Platform for Bio-inspired Computing”

'When comparing the human brain to modern computers, it is clear that there are significant differences in architecture and organisational structure, for example, in computers, the memory and processing units are separated. In the human brain, on the other hand these processes are co-located, making the brain better than computers for certain applications.  Inspired by this, there is a search for materials that allow us to integrate memory and logic. During her Master's research project, Anouk Goossens investigated whether the unconventional semiconductor Nb-doped SrTiO3 would be a suitable candidate for this. This material has many interesting properties and in particular we can control the amount of current that flows across an interface with a metal by applying an electric field across it. We found that, by changing the electric field we can continuously control the resistance giving a memory effect and that the material shows a forgetting behaviour as well.'

Goossens has recently now doing her PhD at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials , University of Groningen.

Short Summary of Luna van der Loos her Master's thesis
“Predicting the responses of seaweeds to ocean acidification: unexpected growth and photosynthetic responses of species with different carbon uptake strategies”

The increase in CO2 concentrations (resulting in ocean acidification) is predicted to restructure coastal regions via its negative impact on many calcifying species. However, fleshy macroalgae, the dominant primary producers and foundation species of temperate regions worldwide, are predicted to benefit from enhanced CO2 levels, depending on their carbon uptake strategy. This physiological study compared the responses of a CCM species (a species with a carbon dioxide concentrating mechanism that is able to use bicarbonate in addition to CO2) with a non-CCM species (acquiring inorganic carbon solely as CO2) to CO2 enrichment with regards to growth, net photosynthesis and biochemistry. Contrary to expectations, there was no enrichment effect for the non-CCM species, whereas the CCM species had a 2-fold greater growth rate. Findings highlight that the responses of macroalgae to CO2 enrichment cannot be inferred solely from their carbon uptake strategy, and targeted physiological experiments on a wider range of species are needed to better predict responses of macroalgae to future oceanic change.