[staff-physics-and-astronomy-HL-UHD-UD] Preliminary feedback from the Research Evaluation Committee

[Juan Rojo]

Dear colleagues,

For those of you who could not attend the session with the committee this afternoon, I wanted to share with you their preliminary feedback.

In a nutshell (we will receive the full report in a few weeks): we could not have wished for a stronger, more positive evaluation! The committee was thoroughly impressed with our research and valorisation activities (excellent, outstanding, world-class level, ...), with very high praise across the board and no critical remarks. The committee also praised our great social atmosphere and collaborative culture, acknowledged the crucial role played by LaserLab as the backbone of the department and a core brand with high international recognition, and qualified our department as a "powerhouse for valorisation", with an impressive track record of connecting top-level "hard science" with societal challenges.

Special thanks to those of you who took part in the interviews with the committee, we really managed to impress them!

Let me use also this opportunity to thank again Erwin for taking the lead with the writing of the self-evaluation report, to Karin and Jordi for their unwavering support and assistance during the whole process, and of course to our fearless Marja and Brigit for ensuring a flawless logistic implementation of the site visit, the mock visitations, and the many meetings that were necessary along the way.

Many congratulations to everyone, such a glowing evaluation would have been impossible without the many contributions, committent, and hard work of each of you during these years.

We can be really proud of the wonderful department that we have, and definitely look with confidence and ambition towards the future. Certainly, as head of department, I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved, and utmost grateful to be part of this department.

Best,

Juan

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Prof. Dr. Juan Rojo
Professor of Theoretical Physics
Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy
Faculty of Science, VU Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1081, 1081HV Amsterdam
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Nikhef Theory Group, Science Park 105,
1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Webpage: http://www.juanrojo.com/
Zoom: https://vu-live.zoom.us/my/juanrojo
E-mail: j.rojo at vu.nl
         j.rojo at nikhef.nl
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