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 ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. When the

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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 List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

, and from there he traveled to the Dutch East Indies. He finished his studies in Batavia. 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. ...

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 Arm ...

and Rob Nieuwenhuys. 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 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 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 ...

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

Leiden - Plantsoen with poem of Leo Vrooman

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 wi ...

, 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

References

External links