. . For biograpl~imlnote contributed by Dr. H. S. van Kloostrr, of ltenrwlaer Polytechnic Inrtitutr, sec page 439. Dr. van Kloo,ter nlso lent the hrrc reproduced.
J. J. VAN LAAR* AS HOLLEMAN is the dean of Dutch organic chemists, so van Laar may be rightly called the Nestor of Holland's physical chemists. Pupil, friend, and co-worker of distinguished Dutchmen (van't Hoff, van der Waals, Bakhuis Roozeboom, Lorentz, Kamerling Onnes), van Laar is one of the few (if not the last) remaining links between the past and the present generation of Dutch physical chemists. There are very few people who can expect to be active beyond three score and ten and publish, as van Laar did a t seventy-five, an opus magnum embodying the results of many years of unremitting labor in one's chosen field. In this age of ours where chemical thermodynamics is taught a t all the leading universities and colleges and "Lewis and Randall" has become a household word to every student majoring in physical chemistry, we are apt to overlook the pioneers of whom van Laar was one of the most prominent. It is nearly forty-five years ago since he published (m Dutch) a treatise on "Thermodynamics in Chemistry." His "SixLectures on the Thermodynamic Potential," written in 1906 (in German, translated into Italian and into Russian but never into English), are as readable today as they were t h i i y years ago. Ideas which are now universally accepted, such as the complete dissociation of strong electrolytes, were proposed by van Laar in 1900, hut, as he himself philosophically reminds us, the trail blazers are olteu forgotten. An ardent admirer and advocate of Gibbs, van Laar seems to have found the least recognition in the homeland of the celebrated author of the phase rule. The reason may be, a t least in part, the language barrier, most of van Laar's See frontispiece.
publications having been written in Dutch, German, or French. Furthermore, his connection with the University of Amsterdam was of comparatively brief duration. I11 health forced him to go to Switzerland in 1912. Here he has been busy ever since, as witness the list of over one hundred articles published in various journals. Born in 1860, he was sent, a t the age of sixteen, to the Dutch Naval Academy, but, like Michelson, he quit the navy after a few years to embark upon a scientific career. In 1881 he enrolled as a student in the University of Amsterdam where he remained till 1884. After a dozen years of high-school teaching, first a t Middelburg, and later a t Utrecht, he went back to Amsterdam where he was admitted to the University as "privaat dozent." In 1903 he became officially connected with his alma mater, first as an assistant to Roozeboom and later as a lecturer in theoretical chemistry. Although he has been a resident of Switzerland for the past twenty-five years, van Laar has found due recognition in his native country. In 1914 the University of Groningen conferred upon h i the honorary degree of doctor of science. In 1929 he received the Bakhuis Roozeboom medal; in 1930 he was made corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences; and in the following year the Dutch Government made him a chevalier of the Order of the Dutch Lion. Mentally alert and active, and still in the midst of scientific productions, van Laar looks upon his present status in life as "la fleur de l'age," which, as his friends confidently expect, will last well beyond four score. (Contributed by H. S. nan Klooster, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York).
