In memoriam: Jacob Leendert (Jaap) Dubbeldam (1935-2014)
Professor Jaap Dubbeldam passed away on the 19th of November at his home in Leiderdorp.
Jaap Dubbeldam started his career at Leiden University as an undergraduate student in biology in 1953. In 1968, he obtained his PhD on his thesis ‘On the structure of the brainstem in some species of birds’. After a postdoc at MIT (Cambridge, USA – 1970-1971) he returned to Leiden to continue his studies of the avian brain anatomy and became leader of a research group on Neuromorphology.
Over the years he developed into an internationally respected expert on the neuroanatomy of the avian brain. In 1985 he got appointed as Professor of Neurobehavioural Morphology and as such supervised a series of dissertations on the subject. Jaap also held a number of important administrative university positions, among others as Director of the Biology Department.
His modest attitude, integrity and balanced judgments provided him with authority and respect among his colleagues. He retired formally in 1997, but remained active despite the progression of his Parkinson disease, which made this more and more difficult. He kept his spirit and interest in research until the end, as reflected in on-going publications, with the most recent one in 2014.
Links
- Obituary in Dutch, in Mare (Leids Universitair Weekblad)