With great sadness, we report the sudden passing of Prof. Emeritus Hans (J.P.) Goedbloed, on 29 September 2026, at his hometown Nieuwegein.
Hans was born in Middelburg in June 1940 and is survived by his spouse Toos and his children Daniël and Gonda and his three grandchildren Milo, Lieke and Stijn. Hans dedicated his life to the study of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, starting his PhD at the FOM Institute Rijnhuizen in 1967 on the stability of screw pinches.
After obtaining his Dr. degree in 1970, his international career takes shape, with research experiences at Kharkov (Ukraine), the Courant Institute in New York, the Los Alamos national laboratory and MIT in the US, and extended stays at various locations in Brazil. In 1989, he got promoted to professorship and started teaching plasma physics at the VU (Free University at Amsterdam) and later at Utrecht University.
His interest in magnetohydrodynamic theory and its applications culminated in many breakthrough publications, especially regarding linear spectral theory for diagnosing waves and plasma stability. He coordinated interdisciplinary large-scale computational efforts, loved teaching, and took part in several dedicated Leiden Lorentz center workshops on his favorite research topic. He first-authored various textbooks on Magnetohydrodynamics and passed his passion for the field to many friends and colleagues. This continued with active collaborations all the way till his passing.
Throughout his scientific career Hans has been a member of the Theoretical Plasma Physics group and later the Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) group of FOM-Rijnhuizen. After his retirement in 2005, he remained connected as a guest researcher to FOM-Rijnhuizen and later DIFFER. During this period he continued his close collaboration with his former postdocs and co-authors of his latest standard work on “Magnetohydroddynamics of Laboratory and Astrophysical plasmas” Rony Keppens and Stefaan Poedts both at the Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, KU Leuven.
Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.
Go to the News page.