AASP Primary Records Program

PALYNOS 27(1): p. 11, 2004.

In November 2003, Pim Brugman passed away due to the effects of MS. Willem Adriaan Brugman (Pim) was born in 1952. During his youth he lived for several years in Canada, providing his Dutch with a nice Canadian accent. After his high school he studied geology in Utrecht. In 1984, he completed his Ph.D. research on Permian-Triassic palynology. He then became Assistant Professor at the Laboratory of Palaleobotany and Palynology in Utrecht.

In 1990, Pim left Utrecht for The Hague, to work for Shell International. Due to his illness, he gradually had to give up working, until he could not continue with palynology anymore in 1994. Although this ended his active career, a few colleagues and former students remained in contact with him. He continued to contribute to their work by providing data and thoughts.

Pim was very passionate about his work. He loved palynology. In Utrecht, he was involved in the start-up of many research topics, such as dinocyst studies and palynofacies analysis. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the successful application of ecological interpretations of pre-Quarternary palynomorph records. Pim has left a large amount of still unpublished work as Internal Reports of the Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology. Most famous is his Report on Permian-Triassic palynology, which remains, to many, a standard guidebook.

On reflection, Pim was an inspiring and innovative palynologist with a good sense of humor. Those who knew him well will surely miss him. May his family have the strength to bear their loss.

One of Pim’s last wishes was to support MS research (see www.msresearch.nl), and any contribution in his name would be a small tribute to him.