| Ralf Mackenbach | |||||
| Birth Name: | Ralf J. J. Mackenbach | ||||
| Birth Date: | 1995 10, df=y | ||||
| Birth Place: | Best, Netherlands | ||||
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Dr. Ralf J. J. Mackenbach (born 4 October 1995)[1] is a Dutch plasma physicist, artist and former child singer, best known for winning the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Click Clack".[2] He is the first and to date only Dutch winner of the contest.
Mackenbach was born in Best, North Brabant and has an older brother Rick (born 1993). As a child, he starred in the musicals Tarzan and Beauty and the Beast.[3] He attended Amsterdam's dancing academy Lucia Marthas, and studied acting at Centrum voor de Kunsten Eindhoven (CKE) in Eindhoven.[4]
In 2009, at the age of thirteen, Mackenbach won the 2009 edition of Junior Songfestival with the song "Click Clack".[5] As a result, he represented the Netherlands in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009, and went on to win the competition with 121 points. "Click Clack" peaked at number 7 in the Dutch Single Top 100.[6] Subsequently, he appeared in the, and contests as part of an interval act.[7]
Mackenbach's debut album Ralf achieved a top 10 spot in the Dutch album charts and entered the Flemish album charts at number 59.[8] In March 2011, it achieved gold status with over 25,000 sales.[9]
In 2011, he participated in the show . He was a judge on the 2011 edition of the Dutch talent show My Name is…. In 2019, he appeared as a judge on the Dutch adaptation of All Together Now.[10]
After graduating secondary school with a VWO certificate, Mackenbach studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2019, he finished a master's degree in nuclear fusion, for which he wrote the dissertation Numerical Modelling of Mode Penetration in Cylindrical Geometries Using M3D-C1.[11]
Continuing his studies at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Ralf completed his PhD cum laude in November 2023 with a thesis titled Available Energy: A compass for navigating the nonlinear landscape of fusion plasma turbulence.[12] He will continue his work as a postdoctoral fellow at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne.