Jan C. A. Boeyens

Boeyens married Martha Hunter in 1960. They had three children, Jan, Aletta and Larisa. He died on 28 August 2015 in Broederstroom, North West, South Africa after returning home from a crystallography conference.

The first Jan Boeyens Medal for outstanding young scientists (younger than 40 years) in theoretical Chemistry or Physics was awarded to Prof Gideon Steyl from the University of the Free State Chemistry department in 2009.

He lectured as professor of chemistry and was Head, Department of Chemistry at the University of Pretoria from 2000 to 2004. In 2005 he was appointed Extraordinary Professor at the Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria.

He was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) from 1981-1999. He was also a visiting professor at Texas A&M University in 1984. Boeyens was appointed Head: Department of Chemistry at WITS from 1984 to 1990 and again from 1997 to 1999. From 1986 to 1999 he was the Director: Centre for Molecular Design at WITS and from 1991 to 1993 became the Dean: Faculty of Science. He was visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin in 1994, and at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 1998, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010.

He returned to the National Physical Laboratory of the CSIR in 1976 where he worked as Head: Physical Chemistry (Structural Chemistry and X-ray Crystallography) until 1980.

He worked at the National Institute for Metallurgy, MINTEK as Chief Scientist and Director of Mintek Research Group for Applied Structural Chemistry, Rand Afrikaans University from 1971 to 1973. He was appointed Honorary Lecturer at Rand Afrikaans University from 1973 to 1975. In 1976 he was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Sussex, England.

He attended the University of Pretoria from 1963 to 1964 and obtained a DSc (with Honours) (Physical and Theoretical Chemistry). His postdoctoral studies were at Stanford University from 1965 to 1966 where he was a Research Associate: Physical Chemistry.

He was lecturer in Physical Chemistry at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and worked at the National Physical Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) where he was Chief Research officer and Head of Crystallography division: Physical Chemistry Group from 1961 to 1963.

Jan C. A. Boeyens FRSSAf (1934–2015) was a South African chemist and educator.

Jan Boeyens was born 2 October 1934 in Wesselsbron, Free State, South Africa. He attended the University of the Orange Free State and in 1955 he obtained a BSc (Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics), in 1956 a BSc(Hons) (Chemistry) and in 1957 MSc (Cum Laude) (Chemistry). He was appointed lecturer in Chemistry at the University of the Orange Free State from 1958 to 1960.