Jan H van der Merwe

Johannes Hendrick van der Merwe (Jan van der Merwe, 28 February 1922 (Humpata, Angola) – 28 February 2016 (South Africa))[1] was a South African physicist[2]. The Frank-Van der Merwe crystal growth model carries his name and he has been awarded with a large number of South African academic prizes.[3] He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Epitaxy".[1]

Van der Merwe was born to Dorslandtrekkers (Afrikaner farmer-settlers) in Angola, but he and his family moved to Namibia shortly afterwards, in 1928. After a BSc in engineering at the University of Stellenbosch, he continued with an MSc in applied mathematics, which he completed in 1945. Between 1947 and 1949, Van der Merwe did a Phd at University of Bristol [4] under Nevill Francis Mott.[1] It was in Bristol that he started working intercrystalline boundaries, together with Charles Frank. Eventually they started researching epitaxy, and in 1949 they presented the fruits of their research in a series of scientific papers.[3][5][6] [7]

While originally striving for an engineering degree, he had been persuaded by a Mathematics professor to go for a degree in Mathematics, which he obtained. After he had obtained his PhD degree in Physics, van der Merwe again went for an advanced degree in Mathematics. He personally regarded his solution to a differential equation in his PhD thesis as one of his biggest achievements. This was basically a soliton differential equation with an ingenious solution, the first ever analytical solution to a soliton problem. [1]. He remained interested in Mathematics after his retirement. From 1972 to 1990 he was Professor at the Physics Department at University of Pretoria. From 1990 to 2003 he was Professor Extraordinarius at University of South Africa. From 2004 until 2016 he was Honorary Professor in the Department of Physics at University of Pretoria. The Materials Research Society published a Focus Issue titled "Jan van der Merwe: Epitaxy and the Computer Age" in November 2017. [8]

Letter of Jan van der Merwe at the age of 80, requesting in 2002 from a colleague the copy of a publication about an analytical solution to a mathematical model.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Prof Jan H van der Merwe, a renowned physicist passed away". South African Institute of Physics. 3 March 2016. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Johannes Van Der Merwe | Who's Who SA". whoswho.co.za. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  3. 1 2 Nabarro, F. RN. "Jan van der Merwe and the theory of epitaxy." Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A 33.8 (2002): 2473-2474.
  4. ↑ http://www.bristol.ac.uk/physics/media/histories/14-portraits.pdf
  5. ↑ Van der Merwe, J. H. "Misfitting monolayers and oriented overgrowth." Discussions of the Faraday Society 5 (1949): 201-214.
  6. ↑ Frank, F. C., and J. H. Van der Merwe. "One-dimensional dislocations. II. Misfitting monolayers and oriented overgrowth." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Vol. 198. No. 1053. The Royal Society, 1949.
  7. ↑ Frank, F. C., and J. H. Van der Merwe. "One-dimensional dislocations. III. Influence of the second harmonic term in the potential representation, on the properties of the model." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Vol. 200. No. 1060. The Royal Society, 1949.
  8. ↑ "Journal of Materials Research: Volume 32 - Focus Issue: Jan van der Merwe: Epitaxy and the Computer Age | Cambridge Core". Cambridge Core. Retrieved 2018-01-24.


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