W. H. de Jeu.

Wim H. de Jeu dedicated most of his scientific life to studying soft matter, starting with liquid crystals at Philips Research (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) in the early days of liquid-crystal displays. At a later stage he established the group Order/Disorder in Soft Matter at the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, in combination with a serving as a professor of Physical Characterization of Polymers at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He investigated problems in polymer and liquid-crystal physics, including phase transitions and ordering in films and at surfaces, using modern x-ray methods. He played an active role at various synchrotrons, in particular the ESRF (Grenoble, France).

Recently his book 'Basic X-Ray Scattering for Soft Matter' was released by Oxford University Press. The book explains basic principles and applications of x-ray scattering in a simple way using many practical examples followed by more elaborate case studies. It has been written for the large community of students and scientists in the field of soft matter (polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, self-assembled organic systems), and will appeal to those who have a more chemical-oriented background with comparatively limited mathematics training.