On Tuesday 30 June, a number of School members gathered in the staff room to farewell Dr Hendrik Grundling.

Head of School Bruce Henry delivered a speech about Hendrik’s time in the School across two and a half decades, followed by a few words from Hendrik himself.

Professor Henry said that Hendrik “is a person of the highest integrity, a person of great scholarship, and a person who carries out research in the intellectually challenging area of mathematical physics”.

Hendrik joined our School in 1989. Prior to joining us, Hendrik completed his undergraduate degree in Science with first class honours at the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1976. He completed his Master of Science there, with distinction, in 1977.

Hendrik spent a few years working as a scientific advisor for Aquatek Limited before undertaking a PhD in Mathematical Physics, under the supervision of Charles Angas Hurst, at the University of Adelaide. Hendrik’s thesis was entitled “Algebraic Structure of Degenerate Systems.” He had initially enrolled in a Master of Science at the University of Adelaide, but he made spectacular progress and he transferred into the PhD program.

Following his PhD, Hendrik was employed as a Research Assistant in the Department of Pure Mathematics in Adelaide for one year, and then as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Australian National University from 1987 - 1988.

Hendrik joined us at UNSW as a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics in 1989, and two years later was appointed on a tenurable lectureship.

Hendrik was promoted to Senior Lecturer at UNSW in 1998, and continued to extend his research over the next two decades. His research took him to many parts of the world to present invited seminars.

Professor Henry described Hendrik as a “wonderful member of our staff”, and said he looked forward to our continuing relationship with him as an Honorary member of staff.

We wish Hendrik all the very best for the future!

(Words above extracted from Bruce Henry’s speech)