This past spring semester, Prof. Todd Hufnagel was on sabbatical in the Netherlands where he had an appointment as a visiting professor in the Institute of Physics at the University of Amsterdam. He spent much of his time working with the group of Peter Schall on the deformation of hard-sphere colloidal glasses, which are an interesting model system for understanding the mechanical behavior of metallic glasses.
While in the Netherlands he also visited the group of A.S.J. Suiker at the Technical University of Eindhoven to discuss crystal plasticity modeling and gave a seminar at the Eindhoven Multiscale Institute. Todd’s wife, Cynthia James, was also on sabbatical from her position as an assistant professor of cardiology in the School of Medicine and worked with groups in both Amsterdam and Utrecht on research into arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, an inherited heart condition that is a leading cause of sudden death among young athletes. With them were their two children, Caroline and Adam, who attended the International School in Utrecht and enjoyed many excursions to cultural and historical sites, not to mention Dutch treats such as stroopwafels and hagelslag.