Jaap Lucassen obituary

Our friend and colleague Jaap Lucassen, who has died aged 84, was a Dutch scientist working mainly in the UK, who made a distinguished contribution to physical chemistry.

The great Anglo-Dutch food and soap company Unilever provided the platform for Jaap's scientific career. Unilever Research spawned in the early 1960s two small basic science groups, at Vlaardingen (Rotterdam) and Port Sunlight (Merseyside), each scrutinising fundamental properties of soap-related materials (surfactants). These groups rapidly gained international respect. Jaap and his wife, Emmie Reynders, joined Vlaardingen in 1961.