Wouter Kallemeijn

Dear Wouter, it's taken me a while to write this, as I still cannot believe you are gone. I have thought about you each day after I found out that you had passed. I met Wouter in 2018 when I joined Ed Tate's lab at Imperial College. My experiences are similar to all those described below - Wouter's reputation preceded him, in the best kind of way. Arriving at Imperial as chemist, I had no idea how to run a western blot. I pleaded with Ed for someone to train me, and Ed quickly recommended Wouter, who said of him "I have never seen someone be able to run so many western blots so well" followed closely by "If I could clone him, I would". While extremely technically proficient, this feature of Wouter is only scratching the surface of his personality. As others have said, Wouter was extremely kind and very patient. He also had a very quirky sense of humour. I knew Wouter when he went through some very difficult health and relational challenges. To this day, I am inspired by the way that he held himself during those times. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, he would go for a run, completing 20 circuits of his local park in Putney, the length equivalent to a marathon, to sweat out his problems. He did this on a weekly basis for months, and still turned up and performed like he always did at work. My fondest memories of Wouter are when we would go to an international conference together. Wouter would often have a hot take on the research being presented, and I often sought this out, and learned greatly from it. Wouter was always gracious. One time I organised a conference, and forgot to put accurate labels on the food, and ended up (accidentally!) giving Wouter a food he was allergic to. He had to rush home immediately to get his eppi pen. The next day I apologised profusely and he immediately forgave me. As most scientists do, Wouter fought hard to compete for fellowships and that next career step. Despite facing a lot of trials in this regard, he was very happy for me when I received a fellowship to return to New Zealand, even though we both knew he deserved something like that more than me. Wouter was a friend for life, that I was looking forward to continuing to reconnect with him over the coming years. While I briefly saw him earlier this year at a conference, I regret not taking more time to connect with him. See you on the other side, the man from the original Zealand. Dan