Following my graduation in physical organic chemistry at the University of Amst- dam, I started to work at the Royal Dutch Shell Laboratories in Amsterdam. My first assignment was research in the field of detergents and industrial chemicals. It was followed by development work on thermal wax cracking for production of C C 2 14 olefins and on acid-catalyzed synthesis of carboxylic acids from C C olefins. 3 6 Then, I made a significant change to analytical chemistry, first at Shell s process development department and later in the chemical engineering department of Delft University of...