In memoriam Hepke Hogeveen

Prof. dr. Hepke (‘Heppie’) Hogeveen, 15/08/1935 – 28/08/2015

Hepke Hogeveen studied chemistry and obtained his PhD in 1961 with Prof. Hans Wynberg in Groningen. After a period of industrial research in Bologna, Amsterdam, and London (Shell), he returned to Groningen and became professor of Organic Chemistry in 1971. During his academic career, until 1992, he published more than 160 scientific papers. His most influential scientific work was on the structure and reactivity of carbocations in general, and on non-classical carbon mono- and dications in particular. There has been quite a bit of (famous, strong and very interesting) scientific discussion on the precise structure of certain carbocations,(the classical versus non-classical carbocation debate) in the second half of the 20^th century. His work did not fully escape from that as well. Later on, he was also active in stereochemistry, specifically on enantioselective and diastereoselective reactions. Hepke Hogeveen was a very open, cheerful and life-celebrating person, an enthusiastic and well-appreciated teacher and a very inspiring scientist to his students and group members. This is the time when the Department of Organic Chemistry at the RuG consisted of his group, together with those of professors Hans Wynberg, Jan Engberts, Dick Kellogg, and Albert van Leusen. At the end of the 80’s, he decided to make a major move in his life, quitted chemistry completely, started performing with his melodeon, went through a psychotherapeutic phase, and obtained a degree in Gestalt therapy. Since the 90’s, making a second and major move, he fully developed the visual artist in himself, producing a wide variety of paintings and sculptures. He specifically liked to play and investigate at what he called ‘the area between the second and third dimension of reality’. His artwork was exhibited publically a number of times.