Opening Address 



VAN NIEL'S THEORY: THIRTY YEARS AFTER 



HANS GAFFRON 

 The Florida State University, Institute of Molecular Biophysics (Fels Fund) 

 Tallahassee, Florida 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 



Considering that we are, as I thought we would be, a gathering of 

 experts, there is really not much excuse for an opening address. The 

 purpose of such an address is probably to remind the participants of 

 the few major problems which the meeting is about, in order that we 

 do not lose sight of them when we begin to discuss the countless de- 

 tails and ramifications into which atopic like Bacterial Photosynthesis 

 must of necessity be subdivided. On the other hand we have had lately 

 symposia and meetings contributing to the problem of photosynthesis 

 at the rate of one or two per year. It is unlikely, therefore, that any 

 one of us could have lost sight of the major problem. 



Even with modern teamwork, progress in terms of essential new 

 discoveries is not so fast that a proposed meeting here and there could 

 not be skipped. But the fact that we are all here shows that the idea 

 of the organizing committee to hold this particular symposium must 

 nevertheless have struck today's guests as an attractive proposition. 



Two reasons can be pointed out immediately. Though we have been 

 acquainted with the Kettering Foundation as a place of research in our 

 field since the days of Inman, Albers and Knorr, Rothemund and later 

 of Clendenning and Eyster, the Laboratory has lately undergone a re- 

 building and an expansion which has moved it into the front line of 

 modern research on the photochemistry in living cells. 



One attraction must have been the desire to visit the Kettering 

 Laboratory, and the second was the idea to single out the phototrophic 

 bacteria for special consideration. This plan has automatically brought 

 together not only the young keen minds for whom history begins after 

 1945, but also those of us who, in a much more leisurely way than is 

 the fashion today, began once upon a time to investigate those reactions 

 which still provide so much material for lively discussions, 



A look at the elegantly done Symposium program has sharpened our 

 anticipation of the coming intellectual pleasures, Mr, Kettering and 

 Dr, Vernon deserve thanks indeed for having called us together. 



And then there was the prospect that we might have among us our 

 good colleague, the eminent and wise scholar Cornelis Benardus van 

 Niel of Pacific Grove, whom his friends and pupils call Kees, Actually 



