Obituary: Professor AB Johan Groeneveld

Professor Arie Bastiaan Johan Groeneveld (AB Johan Groeneveld as he styled himself ) died after a long and bravely fought battle with cancer on Sunday 18 September 2016, at the age of 60. He studied medicine at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and specialized in the field of internal medicine at his home university. He was a research fellow in critical care medicine in Chicago under the supervision of Professor Max Harry Weil. Upon returning to Amsterdam, he wrote his PhD thesis on peripheral vascular function during septic shock under the supervision of his mentor and collaborator Professor Bert Thijs. Johan worked in the Department of Intensive Care at the VU Medical Centre from 1978 until 2011. In 2004, he became a professor of experimental intensive care medicine. In 2011, he moved to the Erasmus Medical Centre of the University of Rotterdam and was appointed as a professor of experimental intensive care medicine. Working with Johan was quite an experience. When he came to Rotterdam, he spent half of his time in the ward with patients and the other half focused on research. In the ward, he was able to process the (seemingly) randomly supplied clinical information within a split second and integrate it into a completely coherent summary of what was wrong with the patient: the diagnosis, the (patho)physiological mechanisms, and possible treatment options together with a list of references from the original literature. When no literature was available, he used logic and drew from an impressive memory filled with all kinds of medical knowledge. He explained his choices, and if no evidence was available, he would say, “I smell printing ink”, meaning that we have to do the research ourselves. This entire process would occur in a couple of minutes. During meetings he always kept everyone intellectually sharp, often just by saying: “I cannot remember any