Dutch chemists through the centuries

The United Nations has declared 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry. But Dutch chemists have been busy for centuries, including some more recently at the UT.

Catherine Ann Lombard

To start with, let’s thank Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten for removing the bitter taste of chocolate and making it more water-soluble. He was born in Amsterdam in 1801 and designed the treatment of cocoa mass with alkaline salts to remove chocolate’s bitter taste. The resulting product is still called ‘Dutch process’ chocolate, and the Van Houten brand of cocoa is still popular today. Van Houten, along with his father, who patented an inexpensive method for pressing the fat from roasted cocoa beans, are credited with the mass production and consumption of chocolate, for which most of us are grateful. Of course, those of us with wider waistlines and a sweet tooth may think otherwise.

The ancient Egyptians would ripen their figs with a gash to the fruits’ skin. Unknowingly, by wounding their figs, the Egyptians were stimulating ethylene, a gaseous organic compound and plant hormone that helps ripen fruit and open flowers. But it took four Dutch chemists in 1795 to discover ethylene’s properties. Johann Rudolph Deimann, Adrien Paets van Troostwyck, Anthoni Lauwerenburgh and Nicolas Bondt showed that ethylene differed from hydrogen gas and that it contained both carbon and hydrogen. They also discovered that ethylene could be combined with chlorine to produce 1,2-dichloroethane. Like any team of true Dutch chemists, most of their discussions probably happened during the coffee hour!

Where would the UT be without Dutch chemist Dr. Gerrit Berkhoff, our first Rector Magnificus? He received his PhD from the University of Leiden in 1929 writing his dissertation on osmosis of ternary fluids. In 1961, Berkhoff was entrusted by the Minister of Education to start preparations for what we now know and love as the University of Twente. Two years later, he was appointed as the first Rector Magnificus, a position that he held until 1967.

Perhaps one of the more interesting Dutch physical chemists associated with the UT is Dr.Maarten Johannes Verkerk. He received his PhD from the UT in 1982 , writing his dissertation ‘Electrical Conductivity and Interface Properties of Oxygen Ion Conducting Materials’, and worked as a researcher from 1978 to 1986. But since then, Verkerk has altered his own chemical state! Together with his wife, Nienke Vegter, he has written several books on gender relationships. In addition, he has written books about responsibility processes in industrial organizations, change management, ethics of technology, ethics of management and organization, and innovation in health care. He is now a professor of Reformational Philosophy at the Technical University of Eindhoven and University Maastricht. Besides that, Verkerk is director of an innovation network in health care called VitaValley. ‘As you see,’ he said recently, ‘chemistry is really a basic disciplinethatprepares you for all types of functions!’ 

As early as 1899, advertisements for Van Houten could be found on trams throughout Europe and the United States. Images compliments of vanhoutenscocoa.com