About me ¶

My name is Tim (linkedin.com), I’m working at ASML (asml.com), a relatively obscure Dutch company (bbc.com), where I work on strategic analyses. Before this, I did my PhD research (handle.net) in the now-defunct instrumentation group (archive.org) of Leiden Observatory (leidenuniv.nl) under supervision of Christoph Keller (lowell.edu) and Hans Gerritsen (uu.nl).

I like science, technology, type, and privacy. Below are some of my interests and past works.

Research ¶

During my PhD (dissertation (handle.net) & template (github.com)) I developed a snapshot coherence-gated direct wavefront sensing method (paper (doi.org)) for multi-photon microscopy (wikipedia.org) on an STW project called Smart Microscopy, where I collaborated with Jacopo Antonello (antonello.org) and Hoa Truong (linkedin.com). I got to work with nice tools like tunable femto-second pulsed lasers (wikipedia.org) so it was pretty cool. 😎

I’ve also analyzed transiting exoplanets with colleagues in Leiden, namely the Kepler (wikipedia.org) object KIC 1255b (wikipedia.org) (paper (doi.org)) and SuperWASP J1407 (noao.edu) (paper (doi.org)). Both these systems are peculiar, the former appears to be burning alive due its extreme close proximity to the host star, while the latter shows signs of a ring system like Saturn’s possibly as big as our orbit around the sun. To me, these objects underscore how surprising the universe can be? And did you know the Kepler telscope used solar pressure to balance itself after its reaction wheel broke doen (wikipedia.org)? 🤯

Before my PhD, I worked on wide-field wavefront sensing (code (github.com)) for the European Solar Telescope (iac.es) at the Institute for Solar Physics (su.se) (archive (archive.org)) in Stockholm and did my master’s in 2007–2008 on adaptive optics in Utrecht which I finished in August 2008 (thesis (vanwerkhoven.org) (mirror (dropbox.com)) & source (vanwerkhoven.org) (mirror (dropbox.com)) & code (github.com)).

Code ¶

Over the years I’ve written various pieces of code — for work or for fun — which are available on github (github.com). Hopefully they’re also useful for others, which is why you are free to copy, remix or adapt (github.com) (not sell) these in whatever way you see fit.

Some examples include data manipulation scripts (github.com), phase unwrapping library (github.com), and domoticz data pusher (github.com).

I also once made a way too complicated Python tutorial explaining language syntax, objects, datatypes, flow control and functions. Then I figured out a tutorial on the daily use of Python for numerical data analysis with the packages numpy, scipy, matplotlib and pyfits was more useful so I also made that. Both episodes on Github (github.com) and Dropbox (dropbox.com).

Type ¶

I like design and especially typography (wikipedia.org). When I have some spare time on my hands I sometimes make some doodles in XeTeX (wikipedia.org)/LaTeX (wikipedia.org) and Adobe Illustrator. Below are some doodles (dropbox.com) that are more or less finished.

LaTeX course ¶

To spread the love I made a LaTeX lecture (dropbox.com) (source (dropbox.com)) to explain the parameter space of typesetting and some less-known detail of (La)TeX.

Dutch railway map ¶

An unfinished geometric railway map of the Netherlands (dropbox.com) with Futura.

Binas table 31 ¶

Binas table 31 (4th edition) (dropbox.com) re-created in LaTeX. Because I can.

XeTeX cheatsheet ¶

A XeTeX document where I kept all the tricks and hacks I came across writing/procrastinating my thesis. Includes stuff like \defaultfontfeatures, \textsuperscript, \@makechapterhead, \marginpar, \textbackslash, Ligatures, polyglossia (github.com), siunitsx (github.com), SmallCaps, UppercaseSmallCaps, SlashedZero, Swash contextuals, TitlingCaps, OldStyle numbers, \arraystretch etc. A snapshot rendering (dropbox.com) is included here, the newest version is available in this gist (github.com).