Structure and Function
The art of chemistry is to thoroughly understand the properties of molecular compounds and materials and to be able to prepare novel compounds with p- dicted and desirable properties. The basis for progress is to fully appreciate and fundamentally underst
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Structure and Function
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Structure and Function
Peter Comba Editor
Structure and Function
123
Editor Peter Comba Universität Heidelberg Anorganisch-Chemisches Institut Im Neuenheimer Feld 270 69120 Heidelberg Germany [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-2887-7 e-ISBN 978-90-481-2888-4 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2888-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009934511 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Jan C.A. Boeyens – A Holistic Scientist
Jan Christoffel Antonie Boeyens was born 75 years ago on October 2, 1934 in a farming community in the small rural town of Wesselsbron in the Free State Province of South Africa. Growing up in such a region, it is natural to develop a love of Nature in all her manifestations, and especially a love of the open veldt, and Jan was no exception in this regard. Today he still loves to walk alone in the veldt, contemplating and observing. In rural communities every boy then had to learn some of the practical manual skills required to make life comfortable. Today, he still likes to work with his hands building things and doing woodwork of outstanding quality. He lives with his wife Martha on a farm on the banks of the Crocodile River outside Pretoria. He named his home “Blandings” after the fictional location in the stories of British writer P.G. Wodehouse. This is an ideal location for him, where the open veldt allows him to take long walks, giving him an opportunity to contemplate, to think and to dream up new, unexpected, simple and elegant solutions for old scientific problems, with the emphasis on the concepts “simple” and “direct”, always emerging as ingenious models describing aspects of Nature. As a young boy he had no aspirations to study science, and had no idea that one day he would become one of the foremost scientists in the country whose work would gain worldwide recognition. After his schooling he completed a B.Sc. degree at the then University of the Orange Free State. Jan graduated with a degree in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics and then completed his M.Sc. degree at the same university and a D.Sc. degree at the University of Pretoria, while employed at the National Physical Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR. v
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Jan C.A. Boeyens – A Holistic Scientist
Jan Boeyens is an avid reader. Having a rather catholic taste, with an emphasis on non-fiction, his interests range from religious historiography and philosophy to the history of
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