Alex Koutsman, a physics undergraduate at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, is one of the Dutch physicists keeping a ‘quantum diary’. He hopes to graduate this year and to start a Ph.D. at NIKHEF (the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics). Yet before he starts his Ph.D., he wants to tour Asia and Australia with his band ‘Vitamin X’.

Maaike Limper, who has just started her Ph.D., is also keeping a weblog. She is working on the largest instrument ever built. Located in Geneva, this will measure collisions between elementary particles. She shares a house with an Italian and Frenchwoman, both physicists, and is a real Dungeons and Dragons fanatic.

The third Dutch participant is Frank Linde. He assumed his present position as director of NIKHEF on 1 December 2004. He comes to work each morning on his inline skates and has big plans for the institute. Yet for the time being, he is still finding his feet in his new job.

Text for this article comes from a NOSR press release.