Professor Diderik van der Waals was born in Amsterdam in 1925. He grew up in a family with four brothers and sisters in the big city, but the weekends they often spent in Boeschoten, a farming estate on the Veluwe in the central Netherlands owned by his grandfather and later by his mother, C E van der Waals-Nachenius. His mother inspired the family with a love of nature and landscape, but also with interest in and support for other people, for instance the farming families on the estate.

In 1923 wordt Anton Gerard van Hamel (1886-1945) hoogleraar Germaanse taal- en letterkunde in Utrecht. Aan zijn leeropdracht wordt ook de keltistiek toegevoegd, waarmee de wetenschappelijke studie van de Keltische talen en literaturen voor het eerst een formele plek in het Nederlandse universitaire bestel verwerft. Van Hamel verbindt daarmee twee werelden met elkaar, de oudgermanistiek en de keltistiek, en zijn rol als verbinder zien we terug in zijn contacten met wetenschappers in zowel Ierland en Wales als in IJsland en Denemarken. Zijn internationale carrière beslaat de periode tussen en gedurende de twee wereldoorlogen, en wordt gekenmerkt door tegenslagen en triomfen, door arrestaties en vriendschappen, en door verguizing en bewondering. Met deze uitgave wordt het 100-jarig jubileum van de leerstoel Keltisch gevierd en tegelijk eer betoond aan A. G. van Hamel, een baanbrekend geleerde met vele gezichten.

Most experiment stations originated from the cooperation between entrepreneurs and the government. From the 1890s onwards, the government, together with the well organised colonial entrepreneurs, established research departments for several plantation crops at the Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg (now Bogor), that eventually became independent experiment stations in the first decades of the twentieth century. By the 1920s, the ‘proefstationswezen’ (experiment station system) numbered some fifteen private experiment stations or sub-stations. After the war, the private experiment stations together with the government experiment stations at Buitenzorg were to provide the backbone of Indonesian agricultural science. Dutch biologists in particular, made a striking plea for pursuing the natural sciences in the tropical colonies. First, they pointed out the scientific importance of the tropics. Secondly, they stressed the role of the natural sciences, in particular biology, as a natural ally of colonial agriculture. Pure science was seen as a leading force for technical and social progress. The third motive was the cultural value of science for the Netherlands and its colonies. The cultivation of science in the colonies gave international prestige and strengthened self-confidence in the imperial struggle around 1900. Science had a civilising effect; scientific research, however, was to remain in the hands of western, colonial scientists. From the 1880s and 1890s onward, the experiment stations in the Indies were characterised by their strategic aims and scientific orientation. Up to 1910, the ‘academic’ views of biologists like Treub and Went concerning science and practice were predominant, and research was considered to be the central aim. From 1910 onwards, advice became more central and special extension services were established at the experiment stations. Due to diverging views of science, tasks and aims became a battlefield for discussions in the next decades. In the background of these debates were the rise of Wageningen Agricultural College, the rise and institutionalisation of applied agricultural sciences and the increasing competition between Wageningen and university trained scientist. Genetics and breeding in particular were at the core of the research programmes. The practical aim of the breeding work, however, did not leave too much opportunity for more fundamental investigations. The impetus for pure research came from individual researchers. In tobacco and sugar cane breeding, new scientific theories provided inspiration, but to a large extent the practical breeding work built on nineteenth-century breeding techniques. In many respects, plant breeding and university genetics became separate disciplines. Circa one in six Dutch biologist worked for at least some time in the colony. The colonial experiment stations instilled a practical and pragmatic attitude to Dutch science into quite a number of biologists. Besides, the experiment stations system provided Dutch biologists with an extensive network and international contacts with fellow scientists, entrepreneurs and captains of industry. The scientific nationalism of Treub and Went, the bloom of the experiment stations and the ambitions of the Indies colonial elite did not result in the establishment of an independent, ‘Indische’ scientific community. Essentially, the Dutch East Indies were an exploitation province of Dutch science

Op 25-jarige leeftijd verloste de Utrechtse promovendus Gerard ’t Hooft de theoretische natuurkunde van een van haar belangrijkste problemen. Zijn aanpak gaf de deeltjesfysica vleugels en zette hem in één klap op het wereldpodium. Bijna dertig jaar later ontving hij in 1999 de Nobelprijs voor natuurkunde, samen met zijn vroegere leermeester Tini Veltman. Bij de aanvaarding van de prijs legde hij niet alleen zijn werk uit, maar ook hoe je zijn achternaam precies spelt. Wie is Gerard ’t Hooft en hoe gaat hij te werk? Deze biografie verkent zijn leven en het baanbrekende denkwerk, dat ’t Hooft het liefst alleen deed, aan de hand van de eigenwijze vragen die hijzelf graag stelt. Diepe vragen over deeltjes. Over zwarte gaten. De zwaartekracht. Het heelal. En over de mensenwereld, ook, die hem vaak meer verbaast dan de natuurkunde. Waarbij alles teruggaat op die ene opmerking in dat ene Chinese restaurant in Utrecht. Op Veltmans vraag hoe ze kunnen laten zien dat hun theorie echt werkt, antwoordde hij zelfverzekerd: ‘Maar dat kan ik.’

Gebundelde herinneringen aan enkele hoogleraren aan de universiteit van Utrecht.