Prof Jan H van der Merwe, a renowned physicist passed away

It is with great sadness that we were informed that one of the most famous South African physicists, Prof Jan H van der Merwe (affectionately known as Prof Jan) passed away on Sunday 28 February 2016, on his 94th birthday.

The memorial service will be on Thursday 3 March 2016 at 11:30 in the Lynnwood Dutch Reformed Church in Sussex Avenue.

Prof Van der Merwe was born in Humpata, Angola from parents who were Dorslandtrekkers (literally translated Thirst land pioneers). In 1880 these Dorslandtrekkers passed through the Namibian desserts to settle in Angola. In 1928 they were relocated to Namibia (South-West Africa at the time), where Prof Jan attended school in various towns.

In 1941 he obtained a bursary to study Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch. After obtaining his BSc degree, he was persuaded by the Head of Applied Mathematics to change to an MSc in Applied Mathematics, which he obtained with distinction in 1945. In 1946 he was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1947 he obtained a position at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) in Pretoria under the supervision of Dr Meiring Naudé. The CSIR also awarded him a bursary to obtain a PhD in Britain. Just before leaving, he married Minnie (de Villiers) and they spent their honeymoon on the ship to the UK.

Dr Naudé arranged that he could pursue his PhD in Theoretical Solid State Physics under the leadership of Sir Neville Mott (a Nobel Laureate) at the University of Bristol. During this period Prof Jan befriended a number of very well-known physicists, such as another Nobel Laureate, Prof CF Powell, Professors Tyndall, Burton, Cabrera and Heinz and Doris Wilsdorf.

Late 1949, Prof Jan returned to the CSIR, South Africa, in time for the birth of their first child Pauline (1950). Later, the family expanded, with Willem (1954), Jan (1957) and the adoption of Anna (1957). From 1953 to 1964 he served as a senior lecturer and thereafter Associate Professor in the Physics Department, University of Pretoria. He realised that he needed a better understanding of Mathematics. In 1956 he obtained an MSc in Mathematics at the University of Pretoria. During the period at the University of Pretoria, lectured MSc students of whom many well-known scientists (physicists and chemists) in South Africa. Many of them later attested to the enormous influence Prof Jan had on them. During this period he re-established friendship with another Bristol colleague, Prof Frank Nabarro, Head of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. A sabbatical leave in 1961 at the University of Virginia with the Wilsdorfs enormously benefited his scientific outputs with many new seminal ideas, including enhancing his initial model to thickening two-dimensional interfaces in 1963.

After a personal invitation by his ex-CSIR colleague and at the time Rector, Prof Ernst Marais, of the newly established University of Port Elizabeth, Prof Jan was appointed as Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics in 1965. During this period at UPE and later on, Prof Jan was invited to present plenary talks at many international conferences. During these visits he made life-long friends with well-known surface scientists, such Ernst Bauer (Technical University of Claustal-Zellerfeld) and Ralf Vanselow (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee). In 1969 he accepted a professorship in Applied Mathematics at Unisa (University of South Africa), a position which he occupied until 1967. In 1970 he spent a further eight months on sabbatical leave at the University of Virginia, where he collaborated with another life-long friend, Bill Jesser.

In 1972, Prof Jan accepted the position of Head of Department and Professor in Physics at the Department of Physics, University of Pretoria. With the establishment of the Foundation for Research Development (FRD) he was one of the first group of scientists to be rated, and received the highest rating possible (an A rating), which meant extra research funding attached to the prestige of the award. This enabled him to invite visiting scientists for an extended period, and Gary Shiflet of the University of Virginia became a friend and collaborator from that time onward. After his mandatory retirement at 65 years of age (the University of Pretoria was too late with a counter offer), Prof Jan took a Professor Extraordinarius position at the Physics Department, Unisa, from 1990 to 2003. From 2004 he was appointed as an Honorary Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Pretoria.

Apart from the two sabbaticals mentioned earlier (1961 and 1970) at the University of Virginia, Prof Jan also spent extended periods as Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Claustal-Zellerfeld, Germany (1981 and 1989), University of Virginia, USA (1981) and Visiting Researcher to Kodak Research Labs, Richmond, USA.

Prof Jan suffered severe setbacks later in his personal life, firstly with the death of his son, Jan, in 1994, his daughter, Pauline, in 1999, and finally his beloved wife, Minnie, in 2006. His elder son, Willem, and daughter-in-law, Marissa invited Prof Jan into their home and lovingly cared for him until he passed away on Sunday. Prof Jan greatly appreciated caring, love and affection of Willem, Marissa, his daughter, Anna and his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The major part of Prof Jan’s career was spent in publishing many seminal papers on the theory of epitaxy, resulting in him becoming known as the Father of Epitaxy. This field became extremely important in the 1960s and onwards, with the advances in the semiconductor industry. This field fundamentally depends on the growth of perfect single crystals for the manufacturing of transistors and IC circuits. His theory of epitaxy played an essential role in understanding how to achieve growing such perfect single crystals.

More fundamental in physics was his model of atomic forces and the energy minimisation concepts. This paved the way for successful modelling on an atomic scale of other important physical phenomena in solids. He personally regarded his solution to a differential equation in his PhD thesis as one of his biggest achievements. This was basically a soliton differential equation with an ingenious solution, the first ever analytical solution to a soliton problem. Solitons in solid state and other branches of physics are only now becoming important for advanced applications in communication technology.

Naturally for such a great scientist, he served on numerous important councils and committees, nationally and internationally. He received a large number of awards in recognition of his achievements, including the Havenga Prize for Physics (1967) from the Suid-Afikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for Science and Art), EW Muller Award (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA), FRD A rating first awarded in 1984 and re-awarded until the end of his working career, De Beers Gold Medal in Physics (1984), DSc (honoris causa) University of South Africa (1984), SAMES award for the best publication in the South African Journal of Physics (1987), the South Africa Order for Excellent Service, Class 1: Gold (1989), DSc (honoris causa) University of Pretoria (1990), DSc (honoris causa) University of Port Elizabeth (1994) and a Gold Medal of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (1998). In 2000 a Symposium in honour of Prof JH van der Merwe on the 50th anniversary of his discovery of Interfacial Dislocations was arranged by the American Society for Metals, Materials and Minerals (2000). He achieved the Tuks Alumni Laureatus Award for Eminent Scientific Achievements (2000) and in 2008 he was awarded the Centenary Award, Leading Minds 1908 to 2008 by the University of Pretoria for his research.

His list of postgraduate student reads like the Who’s Who in Physics in South Africa, with his biggest legacy being the profound influence the manner of thinking and problem solving skills of his students. His students, colleagues, friends, family and Physics will remember him fondly, but will surely miss him ? a great son of South Africa.

We express our deepest condolences to his family, numerous colleagues all over the world and his friends. In particular, we would like to extend our warmest sympathy to his son Willem and daughter-in-law, Marisa, his daughter Anna, his grandchildren and his great grandchildren.

Credit: Contributions by Prof Johan Malherbe and Prof Max Braun