Obituary of Hans Tolhoek

Hans Tolhoek, one of the eldest Pugwash members in the Netherlands, passed away at his home in Groningen on March 6, 2007 at the age of 84.

As a young and promising physicist he attended a conference held in London in 1955 on “Parliamentarians for World Peace”, shortly after the Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued. Three years later, while working at CERN-Geneva, he took part in a meeting at that international centre for fundamental research where Joseph Rotblat called on scientists to form national Pugwash groups to address the urgent need to end the threat of mass destruction by nuclear weapons. In response to this appeal he started Pugwash Netherlands around 1960.

Next to his work in basic theoretical physics, Hans had a lifelong involvement in Pugwash issues and in polemology, the study of peace and the prevention of war. He exhorted universities, both at home and abroad, to be active in this field, under whatever name: polemology, peace studies, conflict studies or even irenology. He and his wife Loes attended many Pugwash conferences on Science and World Affairs. At Dagomys in 1988 he was one of the strong supporters of the “Dagomys Declaration” on poverty and environmental degradation. In his last years he expressed deep concern about the tragic developments in the Middle-East.

With Hans, we have lost a remarkable individual with a deep commitment and a wide curiosity in the scientific, artistic and public domains.