Jack Ooms

Arie Jacobus Johannes "Jack" Ooms (1925 - 6 September 1999, Spain) was a Dutch chemist, diplomat and chemical weapons researcher. As head of Dutch chemical defence research, Ooms worked for 23 years for the eradication of chemical warfare, which he believed could best be achieved by a combination of effective chemical protection and international chemical arms control and a permanent, multilateral ban on chemical weapons, as implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. and later served on the Dutch delegation to the preparatory commission that founded the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with its headquarters in The Hague. In 1991, Ooms was appointed to the United Nations Special Commission, at that time forming to oversee Iraq's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction. This work continued to engage him in the months immediately prior to his death in 1999.

Personal life and legacy Ooms died on 6 September 1999 at his home in Spain and was survived by his wife Marjan.

One of the main conference rooms used by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague is called the Ooms Room to commemorate his efforts. On 27 April 2006, Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende unveiled a photograph of Ooms during his visit on the first observance of the Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare.