Biography
Timmo van der Beek is founder and CTO of Laboratoire Laser Afrique (LLA) since 2016. LLA is a social tech startup in Tunisia. LLA develops new light-based solutions for agriculture in developping (arid) countries. Renewable solar solutions are also engineered for the local industry.
The main themes are: plant disease prevention, arid agriculture, efficient water-use and solar heating. The challenge is to make affordable innovative solutions customized for the African situation, using local knowledge and ressources and bringing technological development and employment to the local community in the process.
Originally trained as a physical chemist (Utrecht University, the Netherlands), Timmo van der Beek worked as an assistant scientist and a chemist at AMOLF institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Before moving to Africa, he did a doctorate in transport of light in complex media at the Nanophotonics department with the Ad Lagendijk group in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He has become an expert on imaging, multiple scattering of light and agrophotonics.
Website
Affiliation
Laboratoire Laser Afrique (Tunisia)
Category
Debate speaker, 2022