Abstract
Our dear friend and colleague Dr Harry Blom passed away at the age of 59 on 16 June 2018 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He graduated from Utrecht University as biologist in 1986 and started his PhD a year later at the Department of Laboratory Animal Science, faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University under the supervision of Professor Bert van Zutphen and Dr. Vera Baumans. In 1993 he defended his thesis “Evaluation of housing conditions for laboratory mice and rats; the use of preference tests for studying choice behaviour”. He designed and built the preference test, which gave him his nickname Handy Harry. These systems were also used by other PhD students who joined the department later on. During 1992–1993 he worked part-time at the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, where he contributed to a project on harmonisation of European legislation on the use of laboratory animals in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. In these countries, he also helped organise courses in Laboratory Animal Science. He finished his post-doctoral training to become an Animal Welfare Officer. His first assignment was with Groningen University and, from 2001 onwards, at Utrecht University together with Vera Baumans. From 2014 he joined the Animal Welfare Body at Utrecht University, where he assisted researchers and animal technicians to improve the design and performance of animal experiments. Harry always put animal welfare first. He tried to use as few animals as possible or to propose an animal-free alternative. He was always a cheerful, friendly, and optimistic person. Harry had no enemies. He got on with everybody. He was member of many national and international associations and committees (FELASA, ICLAS) and contributed frequently to conferences and symposia in the field of Laboratory Animal Science. Recently, he established the Platform for Animal Welfare Bodies in The Netherlands and became its president. He loved teaching Laboratory Animal Science at the University as well as at high schools. Harry travelled all over the world the past 20 years to organise and teach many Laboratory Animal Science courses for scientists and animal technicians together with Vera Baumans, Pim Rooymans and Jan Meijer; they are often referred to as “The Flying Teachers”. In all these courses, he was much appreciated as teacher and as a person, which became obvious from all the letters he received during his illness. He was still full of plans, but unfortunately his life was cut short. Dear Harry, we miss you terribly, your cheerfulness, your initiatives, your heart for animal welfare. You were a great colleague and friend.