Following my graduation in physical organic chemistry at the University
of Amst- dam, I started to work at the Royal Dutch Shell Laboratories in
Amsterdam. My first assignment was research in the field of detergents
and industrial chemicals. It was followed by development work on thermal
wax cracking for production of C - C 2 14 olefins and on acid-catalyzed
synthesis of carboxylic acids from C - C olefins. 3 6 Then, I made a
significant change to analytical chemistry, first at Shell's process
development department and later in the chemical engineering department
of Delft University of Technology. In both departments, there was a
large variety of analy- cal techniques and development of new methods
for automated analysis of small process streams. It was the time that
gas chromatography conquered the world. In this field, a firm basis was
given by Henk Boer, Arie Kwantes and Frits Zuiderweg at Shell Research
Laboratories in Amsterdam, both for packed and for capillary c- umns.
The potential of gas chromatography was huge and, therefore, also in
Delft, its use increased enormously. Moreover, the growth of this
technique was facilitated significantly by the rapidly developing
electronics industry. It not only led to digital peak integrators and
personal computers but also enabled complex measurement techniques. In
addition, I became involved in surface area and porosity characteri-
tion of catalysts and adsorbents, on which topic the research had been
initiated by Prof. J. H. de Boer.
