Footprints and legacy of Cees van de Guchte: AEHMS’ encounters with a super mind

My first acquaintance with Cees began at the Symposium on Sediment quality assessment: Rationale, challenges and strategies held in Gothenburg, Sweden during August 1994 and organized by Dr. Goran Dave, under the banner of the Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society (AEHMS). This meeting provided the seeds for the formation of a working group called Sediment Quality Assessment (SQA). The SQA working group then developed into a regular group, meeting in Europe and the United States and focusing on various topics and issues of current interest. Cees van de Guchte became an active member of the SQA–AEHMS right from the first meeting in Sweden. He remained a contributing participant of the group for almost a decade, from 1994 to 2004, attending and organizing various SQA events (see Table 1). He also served on the organizing committees of most of the SQA symposia. In addition, he served on the Editorial Advisory Board of AEHMS’ journal and was a member of the AEHMS Executive Committee for a long time.Cees was especially active as an organizer of the 1998 SQA 3: Ecotoxicological Hazard and Risk Assessment in Aquatic Environments at RIZA in collaboration with Pieter den Besten in Amsterdam. He continued to be an organizing committee member for later meetings (Table 1), but again played a key role, serving as the Chair of the 6th AEHMS conference entitled Ecotechnology and Environmental Management for the 21st Century: Barometers of Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Integrity (Fig. 1).Cees was an international promoter of science and technology. He actively participated in an AEHMS conference held in Nainital, India during 1999. He played a personal role in interacting with younger Indian scientists, generating interest in ecosystem-based science and conservation. His next active international involvement was attending The Great Himalayas: Climate, Health, Ecology, Management and Conservation in Kathmundu in 2004. His last active role as an organizer was convening the SQA6 conference in Antwerp, Belgium during the summer of 2004. This marks a decade of enthusiastic and energetic participation in the SQA–AEHMS fora. His participation dwindled when the SQA series of symposia was discontinued due to other emerging organizations and activities engaged in by the AEHMS.However, Cees continued to show interest in the promotion of AEHMS globally by recommending that AEHMS organize a special issue for the Second International Conference on Environmental Concerns (ICEC, 2004): Innovative Technologies and Management Options in Xiamen, China. Sadly, his last involvement with the Society was at the 8th AEHMS conference on Ecosystem Health, Restoration and Remediation of Aquatic Ecosystems: Tools, Techniques and Mechanisms, held in Nanjing, China, in 2005 (Table 1). In later years he became busy with other international activities and hence was not as available for AEHMS activities, but was always eager to help as a consultant when contacted.Cees’ pleasant, friendly and charming personality haunts my memory as an outstanding scientist and friend. I must mention here some of Cees’ other social qualities. Once, a visit to Amsterdam, I was invited to stay at his home instead of at a hotel. There I had the pleasure of meeting his wife Jolande, as well as their children, all of whom must be quite grown by now. I found the whole family to be great hosts who entertained me and presented a delicious dinner and cake. I used to phone Cees late at night and the family had nicknamed me the “midnight caller.” Cees had multiple skills, including negotiating and mediating. When the AEHMS was changing publishers in 1998, Cees mediated on behalf of the AEHMS and succeeded in transferring and retaining the name of our journal with the new publisher.The sad news of his passing came suddenly to me from his wife Jolande de Jonge which prompted fond remembrances of all the productive times we had, as well as his effects on the development and growth of the SQA working group and the AEHMS. Consequently, to pay homage to Cees, on behalf of the AEHMS, I contacted Jolande and Cees’ former colleagues with an initiative to publish a memorial special issue of AEHM. The proposal was met with great enthusiasm and involved his workplace, Stichting Deltares, which greatly supported and jointly funded the publication in association with the AEHMS. The society provided all editorial and technical guidelines and support for the completion of the project. Based on family and associates, a joint ad-hoc editorial and technical team (see below) were established which defined the objectives and invited various contributors to the issue. The editorial team met regularly and monitored the organization and development of the special issue. Henk Walters (Deltares), Mohi Munawar and Jennifer Lorimer (AEHMS) coordinated the project. The following title was chosen by the editorial team and AEHMS to honor his memory: “Tribute and memories of Cees van de Guchte: Building bridges between science, society and planet.” The articles were divided into anecdotal and scientific categories and contributors included family members, colleagues and friends of Cees.The AEHMS offers this memorial issue to pay homage and reverence to Cees’ outstanding contributions to ecosystem-based science and to let the scientific community remember his immense contributions to world environmental science. The research community as a whole will be missing Cees forever, while his soul will be hovering over the state of health of the planet.