Water Symposium in honour of Prof. Jan Engberts

On the 10th of April many members of the Stratingh Institute attended the Water Symposium in honour of Prof. Jan Engberts’ 75th birthday. It was a memorable day for Jan who was visibly moved by the event. It was great to see so many people there, both current Stratingh members, former group members as well as colleagues from Jan, with whom he shares a long history. And all this happened 10 years after Jan formally retired! Events like this are common when people retire (indeed we had a splendid day then) but rarely happen another time 10 years later. The fact that the day was such a success is testimony to Jan’s standing in- and continued involvement with the institute. As you know Jan comes in nearly every morning and is always excited about discovering a new gem in the literature. I hope that this may continue for many more years (and that we may share many more coffees together).  
Apart from being a fantastic event from a social point of view, there was also some great Science, with inspiring and insightful talks from top scientists like Bert Meijer, Mischa Bonn (director Max Planck Institute Polymer Chemistry, Mainz), Philip Ball (science writer, author of the biography of water and former Nature editor). All in all a superb event and we all owe a lot to Ben Feringa and Tineke Kalter for organizing it so well!

Sijbren Otto