Wouter Kallemeijn

In the old Persian stories, the Tree of Life carried a thousand seeds,each one a future, each one a possibility. He was such a tree. A mind lit by curiosity, a scientist whose thoughts branched toward every unknown. Full of quiet brilliance and unseen ache. Now his roots live on in those who loved him,in his child, in his partner, in the hearts of his parents and his sister who carry his light forward in their own ways.     

I deeply saddened to hear about Wouter. May he rest in peace. My thoughts and prayers are with Johanna and Charlie. I spent a lot of time with Wouter in London some years ago but unfortunately lost touch in recent years. He was extremely welcoming when I visited him in Voorburg in 2016. I attach some nice photos of our time over the years. In addition to his talents as a scientist, he was a wonderful photographer. I specially love the photo of him with my daughter, Sibéal, as they both "celebrated" the wedding of Harry and Meghan. In Irish we have a saying, "Ní bheidh a leitheid arís ann" meaning "we will never see a man like him again" and I think it is extremely fitting for us to remember this wonderful man.  

Wouter was an outstanding and kind colleague, he always cared for other people and supported them whenever he could. One time, I was stuck with my research and Wouter took a lot of his time to encourage me to continue with my work and he had so many suggestions and exciting ideas to try out! He truly loved science and his peers - he was kind and helpful to anyone, and a great mentor that cared about his students, always helping them grow as scientists and human beings. It was an absolute pleasure to work with Wouter and I hope I can make him proud in the future. He has been more than kind to me and I learned so much from him. Thank you Wouter for everything that you have done, we miss you dearly.