Rudi Cormane

Cormane was born on 7 April 1925 in Bandung, Indonesia, to a manager of a plantation and his wife. At the time, the region was known as the Dutch East Indies. By 1942, the Second World War had extended to the area, and Cormane was imprisoned in a Japanese camp. Here, older prisoners provided him with sufficient education to enable him to enter the University of Leiden in 1946. He graduated in 1953. His studies were interrupted after he contracted polio during a 1947 epidemic which necessitated intensive treatment in Switzerland for paralysis of his legs. ==Career==

In 1956, Cormane established the Laboratory of Fungal Diseases of the Department of Dermatology at the Department of Microbial Diseases, headed by W.R.O. Goslings. Here, he researched and wrote his thesis on "Candida albicans en de therapie met antibiotica" (Candida albicans and treatment with antibiotics). After graduation, he trained at the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Leiden when it was headed by J. Mulder and A. Querido, being appointed to its staff as a specialist in 1958. In 1960, the Head of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Utrecht, L. H. Jansen, invited Cormane to become a resident, following which he became a specialist in dermatology and venereology, and was three years later appointed to its staff. Often invited to speak internationally, one memorable visit was in 1982 when, as a former prisoner of war, he was invited to Japan. ==Personal==

Cormane enjoyed music and played the flute. He also kept a collection of cloisonné pottery. He never married. ==Death and legacy==

Cormane co-founded the European Society of Dermatological Research, the annual meetings initially always took place in Amsterdam to avoid "scientific tourism." The Rudi Cormane Lecture is given in his honour. Cormane's plan was to retire to Thailand; however, he died from a cardiac arrest on 18 February 1987. ==Selected publications==

Books • Immunology and Skin Diseases, Volume 15 of Current topics in immunology. Edward Arnold, 1981. (With Syed Shafi, Asghar). . Articles • • • • == References ==