KLUYVER AS PROFESSOR; CHRONICLES OF THE LABORATORY 



to undertake assignments of longer duration. The world around him, 

 too, had become a very different one; and in the wake of the upheavals 

 many new problems had arisen that demanded solutions. It was evi- 

 dent that these should be formulated by persons who were acutely 

 aware of the changed conditions and of the events that had caused 

 them. Above all, the war had emphatically underscored for him that 

 science can have only relative significance, and represents but one of 

 the many factors in the composite that governs all human endeavour. 

 He felt that his position and gifts compelled him to accept responsibility 

 for more than the mere pursuit of his special field of science. 



Perhaps he realized this obligation all the more strongly because it 

 was one of the attractive features of his chair that he could devote his 

 activities almost entirely to the education of only a small group of truly 

 interested pupils. Thus he was privileged in comparison to many of his 

 colleagues who had to spend most of their time and efforts in the ele- 

 mentary training of large numbers of students. 



Consciously he now increased the sphere of his activities in the wide 

 area of his interests that had already begun to unfold before the war. 

 He continued to guide the scientific work in his institute; yet he also 

 bore witness to the outside world of all he had gained in knowledge 

 and insight during his rich life. His initial pessimism, which occasion- 

 ally expressed itself in extremely sombre moods, and was caused by 

 the recognition that he had fallen behind in his science, further ag- 

 gravated by the great needs of the country, gradually dispersed ; even- 

 tually it was superseded by the constructive interest he took in the 

 great problems that were in store. 



When the need for remodeling the system of higher education was 

 felt in the Netherlands, Kluyver was appointed to the State Commis- 

 sion that was charged with recommending measures that should be 

 taken to achieve the desired goals. 



In 1947 he became Secretary, and a year later Rector Magnificus 

 of the Technological University. The authority and respect he com- 

 manded in the academic senate, and particularly among the students, 

 were unrivaled. He knew how to win over the younger generation to 

 his aims, and felt completely at home among the students. He was hos- 

 pitality personified when officers of student organizations called on 

 him, and during the existing housing shortage he set a personal example 

 by making an apartment available in his home. 



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