Symposium: "Herman Phaff: Learning from Yeast" Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 23-24 September 2003.

Abstract

Thomas Gonzalez Villa , Professor of Microbiology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and former postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Herman J. Phaff , in conjunction with the Fundacion Ramon Areces, organized a symposium in memory of the former Professor at the University of California, Davis. The symposium, held during the 29th annual meeting of the Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM), offered a panoramic view of Phaff's enormous contributions to the knowledge of yeast biology, taxonomy and ecology. Seminars were presented by former Phaff students and postdocs covering various aspects of yeast research originated and associated with the stay in Davis, while some Spanish yeast scientists discussed investigations indirectly inspired by Phaff. Introductory remarks were made by Thomas Villa , Carlos Hardisson , President of the Spanish Society of Microbiology, and Julio Villanueva for the Fundacion Ramon Areces. Then Arnold Demain (R.I.S.E.-Drew University, Madison, NJ) began with a moving review of Phaff's career: “ Herman Jan Phaff: professor , mentor , friend and colleague ”. Phaff left the family wine-trade in Winschoten, The Netherlands, to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering at the Technical University of Delft under Albert Jan Kluyver. This was followed by a move to the United States and a brilliant career, first at University of California, Berkeley, and then at UC Davis. This seminar, together with that of Sally Ann Meyer (Georgia State University): “ Beer , bread and beyond ”, offered a very human picture of a great yeast scientist. Phaff was remembered as an inexhaustible worker, a stickler for details, a global scientist and a …