Optical diagnostics in principle allows you to learn everything about everything.

Nico Dam is an Associate Professor and Chair of Laser Diagnostics for combustion in the department of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His key areas of expertise include optics, lasers, (high resolution) spectroscopy, fuel technology, atomic physics and molecular physics. Tuition subjects include experimentation for mechanical engineering, optical diagnostics for combustion and fluid flow, and physics and measurement methods. Current research focuses on Raman spectroscopy, spray diagnostics and temperature field measurement.

Nico Dam studied Physics (major Experimental Molecular Physics) in Nijmegen, and obtained his PhD at the same university, on the topic of collisional energy transfer in small molecules. Subsequently, he worked on metal cluster spectroscopy as a post-doc at the EPFL in Lausanne, CH, and later as a KNAW fellow back in Nijmegen. He has been working on the development of laser techniques for the quantitative 2-D visualization of reactive and non-reactive flows since 1995, initially at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and since 2008 at the TU/e.