Internships
Within our group, we are always looking for interested students that want to do an internship with us. Have a look at our research pages to get an idea of the projects you can work on during an internship.
Multispecies open-path molecular absorption spectroscopy
Start date: anytime
Level: MSc
Are you an enthusiastic student in Physics and Astronomy, Molecular Sciences, or related fields who is looking for a Master’s internship? Are you keen on developing or working with novel scientific instruments? Would you like to learn new concepts of laser spectroscopy and use them in real-life research? Then you have a part to play as an intern in our research group. Join us, learn how things work in laser spectroscopy, and gain hands-on experience in the lab and in the field!
If you are interested, please contact: dr. Simona Cristescu (simona.cristescu@ru.nl)
Laser-induced contamination in high-power UV laser beam delivery systems in the semiconductor industry
Start date: anytime
Level: MSc or BSc
Several processes in the semiconductor industry require the use of high-power UV lasers. Such laser beams need to be delivered to the wafers through elaborate optical systems, commonly referred to as laser beam delivery systems (or LBD in short). Despite different countermeasures, the optics in LBDs often suffer from contamination that can rapidly degrade the performance of the system. Mirrors can for instance exhibit white hazes and black donut- or pancake-shaped structures. Although these phenomena have been known and studied for many years, the underlying processes are still poorly understood. To our best knowledge, it is the result of some combination of outgassing from organic materials in the LBD, atmospheric contamination from fossil fuel combustion and agriculture, and successive photochemical conversion due to the very intense peak UV irradiance (>100 GW/cm2).
In the current stage of this project, we are studying the adsorption of outgassed organic species to the surface of optical materials. By letting the compound adsorb to porous sintered glass discs instead of regular flat optics, we aim to enhance the sensitivity of the detection of adsorbed species by 100-1000x. To our knowledge, this approach is completely new and could provide information of high scientific value. This part of the internship will consist of performing the first tests of this approach in the lab and think along with us to design experiments that can help us learn about possible strategies to mitigate or reverse the adsorption.
In the second half of the internship, we aim to have our own high-power UV laser operational. From that point onward, we will study how the adsorbed and gas-phase species are photochemically converted to the problematic types of contamination that the semiconductor industry faces in their fabs. One experiment that would be of particular interest is to co-align the UV laser with a mid-infrared supercontinuum laser to be able to measure the photochemically produced radical products in situ.
If you enjoy building and tweaking experimental set-ups and thinking creatively about ways to attack scientific questions with home-built equipment, this may indeed be a project for you! Interested? Please contact Alek Hosseini (aliakbar.hosseini@ru.nl) or Dr. Selwin Hageraats (selwin.hageraats@ru.nl).
Comparative Evaluation of Tedlar® Bags and the DBI BreathCollector for Exhaled Breath Sampling
Start date: anytime
Level: BSc
This internship focuses on experimentally comparing two offline breath‑sampling technologies—traditional Tedlar® bags and the newer DBI BreathCollector to determine their analytical performance, reproducibility, and suitability for VOC‑based breath research. The role combines hands‑on sampling, instrumental analysis, and data interpretation grounded in current breathomics literature. Tedlar® bags are widely used but known to vary in sensitivity, reproducibility, and susceptibility to contamination. During this internship, you will:
Interested? Please contact Dr. Joris Meurs (joris.meurs@ru.nl)
Evaluating headspace sampling strategies for characterisation of e-liquids
Start date: anytime
Level: BSc
Flavoured e-liquids are complex mixtures containing a wide variety of aroma molecules to create a synthetic smell. Many of these aroma compounds are (semi-)volatile in nature and can be detected in the headspace of the liquid. During this internship, you will use different capturing techniques (solid-phase microextraction (SPME), high-capacity sorptive (HiSorb) extraction, and sorbent tubes) for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) originating from the e-liquids. The aim is to compare different capturing techniques and investigate how these techniques perform analytically.
During this internship, you will:
Interested? Please contact Dr. Joris Meurs (joris.meurs@ru.nl)
Development of a validation protocol for aerosol measurements with PTR-ToF-MS
Start date: anytime Level: BSc
Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in air quality, climate, and human health. However, accurately measuring particle-phase compounds remains a challenge. In this internship, you will contribute to developing a laboratory protocol for aerosol measurements using a Proton Transfer Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS).
During this internship, you will generate aerosols from aqueous solutions of carboxylic acids, such as tartaric acid and valeric acid, using a nebulizer. These aerosols will be introduced into the PTR-ToF-MS using a specific CHemical Analysis of aeRosol ON-line (CHARON) particle inlet to investigate response, repeatability, and reproducibility. Based on the results, you will develop a standard operating procedure (SOP) for future validation and control measurements.
Throughout this project, you will gain hands-on experience with mass spectrometry, experimental design, and data analysis.
Interested? Please contact Marleen Huisman (marleen.huisman@ru.nl)
Identification of tracer compounds connected with industrial areas
Start date: Anytime
Level: BSc
Higher levels of environmental air pollution are often concentrated around industrial areas, raising concerns about human health and air quality. To better understand these pollution areas, it is essential to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present. During this internship, you will develop a measurement methodology using thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS). The application will be focused on the iron foundry in Nijmegen.
In this internship, you will evaluate a range of sorbent tube materials to identify the optimal sorbent tube to capture and identify iron foundry emissions. Using reference standards and chemical mixtures of iron foundry pollution, you will select the best sorbent and fine-tune the parameter settings for GC-MS analysis. After this, you will test your method by taking field samples at the source to identify specific trace molecules. These tracer molecules can then be used to map emission through the surrounding neighborhood.