内容简介：
【简介】 Twelve groups contribute currently to the LIC-research: -- Bio-organic synthesis (BIOSYN) prof. Jacques van Boom and prof. Hermen Overkleeft -- Bio-organic photochemistry (BOF) prof. Johan Lugtenburg -- Biophysical organic chemistry (SSNMR) prof. Huub de Groot -- Biophysical structural chemistry (BFSC) prof. Jan Pieter Abrahams -- Catalysis, surfaces and materials (SURFCAT) prof. Aart Kleyn -- Colloid and interface science group (CIS) prof. Dick Bedeaux -- Coordination and bio-inorganic chemistry (CBAC) prof. Jan Reedijk -- Gene expression (GENEXPRESS) prof. Kees Pleij -- Metallo-proteins (METPROT) prof. Gerard Canters -- Molecular genetics (MOLGEN) prof. Jaap Brouwer -- Soft condensed matter (SCM) prof. Hans Fraaije -- Theoretical chemistry (THEOR) dr Marc van Hemert
A short history of Chemistry in Leiden
The first professor who taught chemistry at Leiden was Franciscus de Boe, known as Sylvius (1614-1672), although appointed as Professor of Medicinae Practicae in 1658. In 1669 the first Chemical Laboratory in The Netherlands was built for Carel de Maets (Carolus Dematius, 1640-1690) and situated in a corner of the Botanical Garden with a budget for that year of 250 guilders.
The famous Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) became Professor of Botany in 1708 and Professor of Chemistry in 1718. Boerhaave was a skilled experimentalist. He only trusted those investigations which were based on observations and which were free of any a priori statements.
His successor, Hieronymus David Gaubius, taught chemistry between 1729 and 1764. Under his guidance, dissertations were written about milk, bile and Spanish fly. He was the first professor in whose laboratory chemistry was studied qualitatively as well as quantitatively. On the twelfth of January, 1807 a giant explosion had taken place in Leiden on a ship loaded with 37,000 pounds of gunpowder, killing 151 citizens and demolishing several blocks of houses. Part of the vacant lot thus created is now a park, the Van der Werfpark. On the other part a new laboratory, the present Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, was erected in 1859 for chemistry, physics, anatomy and physiology. In 1874 even two professors in chemistry, J.M. van Bemmelen and A.P.N. Franchimont, were appointed. The latter was appointed extraordinary professor of organic chemistry and thus the first chair in organic chemistry in Europe was created. Franchimont became ordinarius in 1877. Already in 1874 the authorities had promised him a new laboratory, but he had to wait twenty-seven years before he could move into a new building in the Hugo de Grootstraat. Annexed to this building a laboratory for inorganic chemistry was opened in 1918. During the first seventy years of this century, chemistry flourished in these laboratories in the centre of Leiden. The number of students steadily increased from one or two per year in 1901 to about one hundred in the late sixties. New chairs were created in physical chemistry, biochemistry, theoretical chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, while the laboratories, although they were expanded regularly, were filled from the cellars to the attics with hard-working young chemists.
On the 26th of June, 1961, the construction of a new chemistry building was started in The Leeuwenhoek, a grassland outside the residential area of Leiden. Nowadays, these Gorlaeus Laboratories no longer stand isolated in the polder. They are surrounded by a science park with high-tech industries and flanked by the Huygens Laboratory for physics and astronomy, the Mathematical Institute and the Sylvius Laboratory for pharmaceutical and medical research.
