Author
Wilko Verweij studied
chemistry at Groningen University, the Netherlands. His
master's thesis (1986) was on speciation of arsenic in a Dutch
Lake.
From 1986 until 1991 he did his Ph.D.-research on speciation
and bioavailability of copper in humus-rich Dutch lakes.
Since 1991, he works at the National Institute of Public
Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, the
Netherlands.
Although it was not part of his "official" work, he spent a
lot of (private) time on developing chemical equilibrium
models, with special attention for the user friendliness and
chemical intuition.
Main focus of his current work is the use of bioassays to
assess water quality as well as the implementation of the
European Water Framework Directive, both at national and
international level. Wilko visited Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey,
Romania and Serbia to assist those countries in implementing
the Water Framework Directive.
See e.g. site of Croatian Twinning Project or site of Turkish Twinning Project.
History of CHEAQS
For the
Ph.D.-project described above, a DOS-program called GECHEQ was
developed to compute the speciation of copper (and of course,
other elements). GECHEQ was further developed and applied by
other users as well. In 1996, version 6 of GECHEQ was
released. Development of GECHEQ was stopped by that time.
In 1998, the development of a Windows-program called CHEAQS
was started. In July 1999, the very first version of CHEAQS
was released. Since January 2000, CHEAQS can be downloaded
from the Internet.
In March 2004, the first edition of CHEAQS Pro was released.
By November 2008, over 1000 people had registered as user.
Because of regulations, these registrations could not be used
anymore. In June 2009, a new registration procedure started.
So please register (go to the download area)!