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OBITUARIES
Hidde
Prins
It
is with deep regret and a profound sense of loss that we submit this tribute
to Hidde Prins, a true colleague and collaborator, a caring mentor, and
a plant physiologist who trained some of the best electrophysiologists
working with plants today.
Hidde
Binnert Alingh Prins died unexpectedly last October 26 at age 64. He was
born in Rotterdam on June 21, 1939. He received a master’s degree
cum laude from the University of Groningen in 1966 and was then appointed
lecturer in plant physiology, a position he combined with work on his
Ph.D. in the group of Professor Helder. His thesis dealt with electrophysiological
processes associated with nutrient and bicarbonate utilization by submerged
aquatic plants. After his thesis defense in 1974, he spent a year in the
United States working with Professor Noe Higginbotham at Washington State
University in Pullman. During this period a brief collaboration with Professor
Robert Cleland from the University of Washington resulted in the first
paper on the effects of auxin on membrane transport processes. Upon his
return to Groningen, Hidde was appointed associate professor in the Plant
Physiology Department, headed by Professor Piet Kuiper, where he established
a strong electrophysiology group and introduced state-of-the-art techniques
such as the single ion channel patch clamp. He also had strong ties with
the research group of Professor Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh, also at the
University of Washington, and spent a sabbatical period in Seattle in
1990. Hidde’s major research interests remained focused on carbon
acquisition in aquatic plants and algae. He and his students extended
their interests to the membrane transport mechanisms involved in salt
tolerance of terrestrial plants. His group was the first to demonstrate
the induction by salt of the tonoplast proton/sodium antiporter as a mechanism
of sodium compartmentalization. In his group a number of young scientists,
including Bert de Boer, Theo Elzenga, Frans Maathuis, Henk Miedema, Frank
Lanfenmeier, Sake Vogelzang, and Lucina van Ginkel, started their careers
as Ph.D. students and postdocs. He was a member of the American Society
of Plant Biologists, the Dutch Botanical Society, and the Dutch Biophysical
Society.
Members
of Hidde’s research group were shareholders in ECOTRANS. This was
the name that Hidde gave to his group, as a team-building technique, with
the concept that it was a company and the profits were results, presentations,
and publications. Being the “director” of ECOTRANS, Hidde organized
a Christmas dinner every year and presented its balance sheet. Any “profits”
went back into the company with the exception of year-end bonuses: a cherry-chocolate,
a Christmas tree decoration, Italian lire from a monopoly game, and so
forth. Hidde stimulated students’ creativity, encouraged new ideas,
celebrated results, and put them into perspective with a final comment
“Do it 20 times more.” Hidde always wanted proof when you came
up with a model. He also enjoyed building and rebuilding equipment to
achieve the perfect experiment.
Hidde
is survived by his wife Els and his daughter Marieke and sons Peter and
Jan-Hidde and their children. His many friends and colleagues remember
most fondly sailing with him on his Valk on the Pikmeer and Widje Ee.
Theo
Elzenga
Marten Staal
Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh
Robert Cleland
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