Dr. Mikhail Loktev is one of a growing number of highly educated Russians who studied in Delft and then decided to stay and make their careers here. Having received his TU Delft PhD degree, Loktev now works at OKO Technologies, where he and two other Russians he met in the TU’s Micro-Optics Group are developing a powerful yet inexpensive telescopic system.
Back in the 1980s, when the Cold War was at its height, a common Dutch saying was, ‘I’d rather have a cruise missile stationed in my backyard, than a Russki at my front door’. This referred to the possible placement of tactical nuclear missiles in the Netherlands, compared to the gloomy prospect of a Soviet invasion.
Today, cruise missiles or no cruise missiles, the Russians are definitely here: estimates set the number of former Soviet citizens living in the Netherlands between 50,000 and 150,000, with many of them being highly qualified knowledge workers.
The nine different Russian-language newspapers sold on Delft Central Station’s newsstand shows that Delft also has a significant Russian-speaking population. And statistics relating to the Russian presence in Holland reveal an interesting trend: not only are direct immigrants from the former Soviet Union one of the fastest-growing migration groups, but the ‘second-generation’ (children of migrants) is also growing fast. This means that not only are the Russians here, but also they’re here to stay.
Dr. Mikhail Loktev is one of those Russians here to stay: Born in Samara, Russia, in 1973, into a family descending from Ural and Volga Cossacks, Loktev received his MSc degree in Physics (Optics and Spectroscopy) from Samara State University in 1994, before going to work at the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Loktev arrived in Delft in 2000, with a one-year contract to work in the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory. This work later evolved into a PhD research project funded by STW, the Dutch agency that supports university research. Shortly afterwards his family – wife Rosa and daughter Anna (12) – joined him here. Alisa, his youngest daughter, was born in Holland four years ago.
Loktev enjoyed his time at TU Delft and likes living in the Netherlands. “TU Delft’s library is awesome, ” he says. “And the research infrastructure is also very well developed here. It’s great when your university has the contacts and financial abilities to get proper equipment and attract good people.”
Loktev however would like to see a bit more flexibility and transparency added to the research mix. “The downside is the somewhat formal approach that rules here,” he says. “Faculties and research groups are very isolated, and even within the same group people often don’t know what their colleagues are doing.”
Loktev’s adaptation to life in Holland has been a challenging but fairly smooth process. Only Loktev himself has struggled with learning the Dutch language, and that he blames on TU Delft’s strong international character.
“It’s really quite difficult to learn Dutch when your workplace is so internationalized,” he says. “Of the 30 PhD students at my former TU lab, only two or three were Dutch nationals. And besides, women usually adapt faster than men, so my wife now speaks much better Dutch than I do.”
Loktev adds that his wife will soon qualify as a kindergarten teacher and his two daughters attend Dutch schools: “We all like the Dutch schooling system very much, with its informal, relaxed and friendly attitude and approach.”
He does want his children to retain some of their Russian identity, however: “I send my girls to a Russian-speaking children’s club in Tanthof on the weekends, so that they’ll also grow up knowing the Russian language.”
Hubble
Loktev now works at Flexible Optical B.V. (OKO Technologies). It’s a small company, but with an extremely highly educated staff: All three full-time employees have
TU Delft PhD degrees, and all three also originate from Russia, having met in Delft while working in the TU’s Micro-Optics Group.
OKO Tech’s products seem to jump right out of a science fiction movie, where the magic words ‘zoom in…and now enhance’ make blurry images suddenly appear amazingly sharp. OKO Tech develops and manufactures Micromachined Membrane Deformable Mirrors (MMDM), piezoelectric deformable mirrors (PDM), liquid crystal adaptive lenses, wavefront sensors and adaptive optical systems for scientific, industrial and medical applications.
The company’s optical systems provide real-time correction of optical aberrations and generate precision wave fronts. The basic principles are quite simple. The PDM is a mirror glued to an array of ceramic actuators. When voltage is applied to the actuators, they shorten, thereby altering the shape of the mirror.
The MMDM is even simpler . an array of electrodes creates an electric field that changes the shape of the reflective membrane above it. While the basic idea is simple, making it work is not. The latest PDM prototype has no less than 109 actuators under a mirror measuring just 5cm in diameter. And the MMDM’s membrane is less than 1 micron thick, which means it can be broken by a small static electricity spark or even by a stray fly.
At first, OKO Tech developed and produced single components, but now they offer complete systems that typically include a deformable mirror, one or more high-voltage amplifier units, controllers, a sensor for measuring the disturbances that need to be corrected (like atmospheric turbulence), and a control computer.
The company is now trying to develop a very low-cost system for amateur telescopes. The system should provide high-resolution images of planets and distant stars for an affordable price: the target price is 4,000 euro for the complete system. Combined with a good telescope, the total price would be around 10,000 euro, or approximately one million times cheaper than the Hubble Telescope.
OKO Tech is a growing company and always on the lookout for talented individuals with good theoretical skills and hands-on experience in optics, electronics and fine mechanics. The company also has training positions open to TU Delft MSc students. However, given the company’s decidedly Russian background, any applicants should probably expect a vodka-test, although Loktev is quick to stress that the only alcohol on the company’s premises is the 99.5% pure alcohol used for cleaning the optical axes, and even a Russian wouldn’t drink that.
Back in the 1980s, when the Cold War was at its height, a common Dutch saying was, ‘I’d rather have a cruise missile stationed in my backyard, than a Russki at my front door’. This referred to the possible placement of tactical nuclear missiles in the Netherlands, compared to the gloomy prospect of a Soviet invasion.
Today, cruise missiles or no cruise missiles, the Russians are definitely here: estimates set the number of former Soviet citizens living in the Netherlands between 50,000 and 150,000, with many of them being highly qualified knowledge workers.
The nine different Russian-language newspapers sold on Delft Central Station’s newsstand shows that Delft also has a significant Russian-speaking population. And statistics relating to the Russian presence in Holland reveal an interesting trend: not only are direct immigrants from the former Soviet Union one of the fastest-growing migration groups, but the ‘second-generation’ (children of migrants) is also growing fast. This means that not only are the Russians here, but also they’re here to stay.
Dr. Mikhail Loktev is one of those Russians here to stay: Born in Samara, Russia, in 1973, into a family descending from Ural and Volga Cossacks, Loktev received his MSc degree in Physics (Optics and Spectroscopy) from Samara State University in 1994, before going to work at the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Loktev arrived in Delft in 2000, with a one-year contract to work in the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory. This work later evolved into a PhD research project funded by STW, the Dutch agency that supports university research. Shortly afterwards his family – wife Rosa and daughter Anna (12) – joined him here. Alisa, his youngest daughter, was born in Holland four years ago.
Loktev enjoyed his time at TU Delft and likes living in the Netherlands. “TU Delft’s library is awesome, ” he says. “And the research infrastructure is also very well developed here. It’s great when your university has the contacts and financial abilities to get proper equipment and attract good people.”
Loktev however would like to see a bit more flexibility and transparency added to the research mix. “The downside is the somewhat formal approach that rules here,” he says. “Faculties and research groups are very isolated, and even within the same group people often don’t know what their colleagues are doing.”
Loktev’s adaptation to life in Holland has been a challenging but fairly smooth process. Only Loktev himself has struggled with learning the Dutch language, and that he blames on TU Delft’s strong international character.
“It’s really quite difficult to learn Dutch when your workplace is so internationalized,” he says. “Of the 30 PhD students at my former TU lab, only two or three were Dutch nationals. And besides, women usually adapt faster than men, so my wife now speaks much better Dutch than I do.”
Loktev adds that his wife will soon qualify as a kindergarten teacher and his two daughters attend Dutch schools: “We all like the Dutch schooling system very much, with its informal, relaxed and friendly attitude and approach.”
He does want his children to retain some of their Russian identity, however: “I send my girls to a Russian-speaking children’s club in Tanthof on the weekends, so that they’ll also grow up knowing the Russian language.”
Hubble
Loktev now works at Flexible Optical B.V. (OKO Technologies). It’s a small company, but with an extremely highly educated staff: All three full-time employees have
TU Delft PhD degrees, and all three also originate from Russia, having met in Delft while working in the TU’s Micro-Optics Group.
OKO Tech’s products seem to jump right out of a science fiction movie, where the magic words ‘zoom in…and now enhance’ make blurry images suddenly appear amazingly sharp. OKO Tech develops and manufactures Micromachined Membrane Deformable Mirrors (MMDM), piezoelectric deformable mirrors (PDM), liquid crystal adaptive lenses, wavefront sensors and adaptive optical systems for scientific, industrial and medical applications.
The company’s optical systems provide real-time correction of optical aberrations and generate precision wave fronts. The basic principles are quite simple. The PDM is a mirror glued to an array of ceramic actuators. When voltage is applied to the actuators, they shorten, thereby altering the shape of the mirror.
The MMDM is even simpler . an array of electrodes creates an electric field that changes the shape of the reflective membrane above it. While the basic idea is simple, making it work is not. The latest PDM prototype has no less than 109 actuators under a mirror measuring just 5cm in diameter. And the MMDM’s membrane is less than 1 micron thick, which means it can be broken by a small static electricity spark or even by a stray fly.
At first, OKO Tech developed and produced single components, but now they offer complete systems that typically include a deformable mirror, one or more high-voltage amplifier units, controllers, a sensor for measuring the disturbances that need to be corrected (like atmospheric turbulence), and a control computer.
The company is now trying to develop a very low-cost system for amateur telescopes. The system should provide high-resolution images of planets and distant stars for an affordable price: the target price is 4,000 euro for the complete system. Combined with a good telescope, the total price would be around 10,000 euro, or approximately one million times cheaper than the Hubble Telescope.
OKO Tech is a growing company and always on the lookout for talented individuals with good theoretical skills and hands-on experience in optics, electronics and fine mechanics. The company also has training positions open to TU Delft MSc students. However, given the company’s decidedly Russian background, any applicants should probably expect a vodka-test, although Loktev is quick to stress that the only alcohol on the company’s premises is the 99.5% pure alcohol used for cleaning the optical axes, and even a Russian wouldn’t drink that.
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