John Warman is directly responsible for me moving my wife, Audrey, then pregnant with our son-to-be Oskar in the summer of 2001. Backing up a bit, I had met John at a Gordon conference , one of those tiny conferences with only about 100 people that took place in sleepy little college towns in the hot summers. I traveled there with my mentor Prof. Bill Bernhard, so excited to meet another group that had measured the charge transport capabilities of DNA. It was very exciting for me, as a lowly graduate student, to be sitting among the giants of my field, where John treated me as an equal, listening to my thoughts and research experiences. I also remember that was the year of an international football competition: John and several of us headed to the local sports bar to watch the game, but they did not carry the game! What to do in this pre-Youtube days? We ended up huddled around a small desktop computer hooked to the modem as I read out the report text line by line to the assembled fans, cheering erupting every so often as a good pass was described or a ball flew over the goal! I guess I made enough of an impression, as during a subsequent conference in Windermere, John offered me a postdoc position on the DISCEL project. Excited, I ran to the pub phone and called Audrey back in the USA and babbled on about the prospect. She said: "Take it! By the way, I'm pregnant." Oskar arrived during my sojurn in Delft, and John and Mariljn were both very supportive of us, and I never forgot it. I also remember the shirt of his I ruined when I invited them to our flat and served them that splattery spaghetti dinner, with John in his immaculate white shirt (well, at least it was when he came!) John trusted me, and let me work on a wide variety of topics at TUD, resulting in eleven papers from a two year postdoc and a position in then PICT at the TU Eindhoven, where I am now. It was great to visit with him in the following years, attending Thij's birthday parties, retirements, and other big events where we were made to feel as if we'd never left. I will always remember your lust for life, John, and your guidance and sharp but productive criticism of my work that helped form my approach to science even today, but I hope I have also carried some of your vigor for living with me as well. Although I never learned to dunk my Jenever in my beer... Good bye, John, and all the best to those of your family who survive you and keep the memory alive.
