Nikhef marks 50th anniversary in June

With a subtle change to its logo, from today, Nikhef marks its upcoming 50th anniversary. Nikhef was founded on 17th June 1975 in Amsterdam. At the time, the national institute was supported by the universities of Amsterdam and Nijmegen, the FOM foundation and the nuclear research institute IKO.

Particle Physics

In particle physics, very large detectors are used to study elementary particles. Particles such as protons are accelerated in a particle accelerator, and made to collide with each other. Nikhef is active in ALICE, ATLAS and LHCb at CERN.

KM3NeT detects the highest energy neutrino ever observed

The KM3NeT Collaboration announces the detection from the abyss of the Mediterranean Sea of a cosmic neutrino with a record-breaking energy of about 220 PeV.

Technology departments

The technology departments at Nikhef employ about 80 people. They support the scientific projects by designing and building (parts of) detectors, accelerators, readout and control systems, and computer and network infrastructures.

LHCb: Antimatter and b-quarks

Nikhef's Outreach activities

Want to find out more about our research? On our Outreach website you will find all our outreach activities organised by Nikhef in Amsterdam for the general public, students and teachers. See you at Nikhef!

Auger: Cosmic rays

Nikhef scientists, together with colleagues from around the world, perform research at the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, an international observatory for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic radiation, located on the plains of western Argentina. They do so to learn more about the nature and origins of this mysterious cosmic radiation.

Astroparticle physics

Astroparticle physics combines physics and astronomy. In the cosmos, very strong magnetic fields create what can be considered a ‘natural’ particle accelerator. To perform astrophysics research, scientists ‘just’ need to build the right detectors. Nikhef is active in KM3NeT, Auger, XENON1T/nT and Virgo.