![Leo Vroman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Leo_Vroman.jpg)
Leo Vroman (April 10, 1915 – February 22, 2014) was a Dutch-American
hematologist, a prolific poet mainly in Dutch and an illustrator.
Life and work
Vroman, who was Jewish, was born in
Gouda and studied
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
. When the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s occupied the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
on May 10, 1940, he fled to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, and from there he traveled to the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. He finished his studies in
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
. After the Japanese occupied
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
he was interned and stayed in several
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...
s. In the camp
Tjimahi
Cimahi () is a landlocked city located immediately west of the larger city of Bandung, in West Java Province, Indonesia and within the Bandung Metropolitan Area. It covers an area of 40.37 km2 and had a population at the 2010 Census of 541 ...
he befriended the authors
Tjalie Robinson
Tjalie Robinson is the main alias of the Indo (Eurasian) intellectual and writer Jan Boon (born Nijmegen, 10 January 1911; died The Hague, 22 April 1974) also known as Vincent Mahieu. His father Cornelis Boon, a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ...
and
Rob Nieuwenhuys
Robert Nieuwenhuys (30 June 1908 – 8 November 1999) was a Dutch writer of Indo descent. The son of a 'Totok' Dutchman and an Indo-European mother, he and his younger brother Roelof, grew up in Batavia, where his father was the managing direct ...
.
His uncle was the physician and medical researcher Isidore Snapper, who worked in New York City after emigrating from the Netherlands. (The mathematician
Ernst Snapper
Ernst Snapper (December 2, 1913, Groningen – February 5, 2011, Chapel Hill, North Carolina) was a Dutch-American mathematician, known for his research in "commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, cohomology of groups, character theory, and c ...
was Vroman;s cousin.) After the war, Vroman went to the United States to work in
New York as a hematology researcher. He gained American citizenship and lived in
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
until his death in 2014, aged 98.
In 1946, he published his first poems in the Netherlands, and since then has won almost every Dutch literary poetry prize possible. In 1970 Vroman was awarded the Individual Science Award by
Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
. In 2003, his former high school, ''de Goudse ScholenGemeenschap'' (GSG), changed its name into ''de Goudse ScholenGemeenschap Leo Vroman'' (GSG Leo Vroman).
He was engaged to Georgine Marie Sanders from May 1940 until their marriage in September 1947. They had two daughters.
Poetry
In English
* ''Poems in English'' (1953)
* ''Just one more world (poems and photographs)'' (1976)
* ''Love, greatly enlarged '' (1992)
Scientific work
E.g.,
* ''Surface contact and thromboplastin formation'' (PhD Thesis,
University of Utrecht
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
) (1958).
* ''Blood'', Garden City, N.Y. : Published for the American Museum of Natural History, Natural History Press, 1967.
* with Edward F Leonard: ''The Behavior of blood and its components at interfaces'', Columbia University Seminar on Biomaterials,
New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...
, New York, 1977. Vol. 283 in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
* with Edward F Leonard and Vincent T Turitto: ''Blood in contact with natural and artificial surfaces'', New York Academy of Sciences, New York, N.Y., 1987. Vol. 516 in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
See also
*
Vroman effect The Vroman effect, named after Leo Vroman, describes the process of competitive protein adsorption to a surface by blood serum proteins. The highest mobility proteins generally arrive first and are later replaced by less mobile proteins that hav ...
References
External links
*
The Vroman Effect by C. H. Bamford, S. L. Cooper, T. Tsuruta, 1992Poetry International on VromanVroman's publications at WorldCat (libraries) The Vroman Foundation* Interviews with Leo and Tineke Vroman
Part 1, March 19, 2009Part 2, March 19, 2009Part 1, March 20, 2009Part 2, March 20, 2009Part 3, March 20, 2009Part 4, March 20, 2009Part 1, March 21, 2009Part 2, March 21, 2009Part 3, March 21, 2009Part 3, March 21, 2009University of Texas at San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures: Oral History Collection, UA 15.01, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vroman, Leo
Dutch male poets
American male poets
Jewish poets
Jewish American poets
American hematologists
P. C. Hooft Award winners
World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan
Utrecht University alumni
People from Fort Worth, Texas
Dutch emigrants to the United States
Dutch Jews
People from Gouda, South Holland
1915 births
2014 deaths
20th-century American poets
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American Jews