Jan van Hooff

Johan Antoon Reinier Alex Maria "Jan" van Hooff (born 15 May 1936) is a Dutch biologist best known for his research involving primates. He was professor of comparative physiology at Utrecht University from 1980 to 2001.

Early life Van Hooff was born in Arnhem on 15 May 1936. He had a younger brother, , and sister, Johanna. During his childhood he grew up at Royal Burgers' Zoo, which had been founded by his grandfather Johan Burgers. The zoo was later taken over by his parents who lodged it through troubling times after the Battle of Arnhem. He grew up with feeding lions, giving bottles to tigers, and a baby macaque abandoned by its mother lived in his home. After reading the book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals of Charles Darwin he decided he wished to do research on the facial expressions of primates. Not having an opportunity to do so at Utrecht University, he was helped by professor of comparative physiology Sven Dijkgraaf to study at the University of Oxford under Nikolaas Tinbergen and Desmond Morris.

Career In 1966 Van Hooff was involved in research concerning socialization of a large group of chimpanzees held at a United States Air Force research institute. Due to Van Hooff's involvement a group of chimpanzees was added to Royal Burgers' Zoo in 1971. This latter group was intensively researched by Frans de Waal, Van Hooff's first PhD student. He retired in 2001. Van Hooff is an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Mama was the oldest chimpanzee in the Netherlands and had known Van Hooff since 1972. Upon recognising Van Hooff, Mama broke into a wide grin and embraced him. Van Hooff was able to feed and comfort Mama, who had previously refused food. Mama died a week after their reunion.

In 2019 he published his autobiography: Gebiologeerd.