Welcome

My name is Niels. I'm an experimental materials scientist and electron microscopist, as well as an enthusiast for everything related to python, data, computing, Linux and open source. I've done research on metals and alloys, radiation effects in nuclear materials, small-scale microstructural characterization, and advanced scanning transmission electron microscopy methods. I've also developed some python tools to facilitate a number of workflows for experimentalists, and have contributed to some established open source projects in my field. Currently, I'm working as a post-doc in the advanced electron microscopy group of Dr. C. Liebscher at the Max-Planck-Institute für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Image of Niels

Research topics and interests

  • Phase transformations and microstructural design in metals
  • Effects of irradiation on microstructure and properties of materials
  • Advanced TEM methods and data analysis techniques
  • Open science in microscopy and materials science

What I do besides research

I live with my wife and dog in Belgium. Before the pandemic I went to the gym, now I mainly go running with the dog. I play piano and am a big fan of Chopin. Occasionally I play chess; find me on Lichess @nickcorn93. As a teenager, I used to make computer games (the site I made for that is still available here) and maybe I'll get back into that at some point. I'm developing an interest for 3D modeling using Blender and might write about some of that on the blog. Like everyone else, I would like to read more books. In general, I like tinkering with tech and software.

How this site was made

The site is a small personal project to experiment with static site generators, front-end web design, and self-hosting a website. To create it, I used Pelican and employed elements of Bootstrap. The source code for this site is freely available on Github.