Harry A.J. Oonk is Emeritus Professor of Thermodynamics at Utrecht University; the University where he studied, taught and carried out research. Research interests: the phase behaviour of condensed matter, with an accent on materials in the interior of the Earth; the structural and thermodynamic properties of (molecular) mixed crystals. He is one of the founders of the REALM (Réseau Européen sur les Alliages Moléculaires), a network, uniting research groups at the Universities of Barcelona, Bordeaux and Utrecht, and devoted to the study of mixed crystals. He is the author of Phase Theory (Elsevier, 1981); and with Teresa Calvet of “Equilibrium Between Phases of Matter. Phenomenology and Thermodynamics” (Springer, 2008).
Michael H. Jacobs is specialized in computational thermodynamics, geophysics, and material sciences. He earned his Ph.D in Chemistry at the Utrecht University and carried out research at the Utrecht University, RWTH Aachen University, and Clausthal University of Technology. His research interests are the coupling of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics to the dynamics of planetary interiors and computational thermodynamics applied to oxide and metal systems.