Dear colleagues,
This Special Issue is in memory and in honor of Professor Gerda van Rosmalen, who saddened the crystallization community with her departure and left us with the wide and deep heritage of her work and most pleasant personal memories. If those who knew her were asked what thoughts were in her mind at the time of the early nineteen seventies when this picture was taken and she was still at the start of her long and fruitful career in crystallization, the likely answers would be: “Oh, oh … Crystallization as a unit operation is not a subject at any university, only some universities perform research on crystallization, and many industrial companies use crystallization but experience substantial problems. More researchers should be aware of what is truly happening in large crystallizers and more users in the industry should be aware of what researchers are truly discovering. What can I do to contribute?”
She started in Delft in 1970, became professor in 1987 and supervised 26 Ph.D. students until she retired in 2001. Some 150 publications and 3 patents crown her work in the area of industrial crystallization. After her retirement, she continued to guide Ph.D. students and maintained contact with her ex-colleagues. In 2015, fourteen years after her retirement as professor, she co-authored a book on industrial crystallization with authors from three continents. This says a lot about her diversity of thinking and doing.
Gerda received other thoughts on crystallization well and offered her own ideas very openly in all discussions during her courses, research and consultation. It is not surprising that she became a renowned member of the crystallization community and a Board Member of the Working Party on Industrial Crystallization of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers.
We in the crystallization community shall hold warm memories of her work and her person.
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- Boban Jančić, Sevelen, August 2021
The two pictures (Figure 1 and Figure 2) below show the crystallization community that participated to one of the symposia in Japan and a cordial meeting with the author three years after he left Delft University.
Figure 1.
International Symposium on Separation Process Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, 26–27 September 1986.
Figure 2.
Who knew her work—respected her. Who knew her as well—also liked her.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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