Thijs van Leest

Thijs van Leest is the Research & Innovation Team Lead at PhotonFirst. Thijs previously worked as a PhD student at Delft University of Technology from September 2009 to September 2014. Their project focused on on-chip optical trapping devices designed for trapping single bacteria in water. The goal of their project was to investigate the feasibility of an on-line lab-on-a-chip sensor for detecting single bacteria in drinking or surface water, by combining Raman spectroscopy and trapping for the identification of hazardous bacteria. Photonic crystal cavities were designed and optimized using computational tools and fabricated using nano-lithography and microfluidic techniques. Experiments demonstrated that the various devices developed were very suitable for optical trapping and that two-dimensional photonic crystals form a very interesting novel platform for optical manipulation in general.

Thijs van Leest received a BSc in Technische Natuurkunde from Delft University of Technology, followed by an MSc in Applied Physics from the same school. Thijs then went on to complete a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nanophotonics at Delft University of Technology.