Will There Be Soil Physics After Rien?.

When, in 1972, a special issue of the journal Soil Science was published in honour of the great Soil Physicist L.A. Richards on the occasion of his 68^th birthday, I posed the question “Will there be Soil Physics after L. A.?”.  The present title does not suggest that Rien van Genuchten is now 68. Oh, no. He is much younger and I expect great things yet to come from his fertile brain. But, there are moments in time, when, looking back over a period of rapid scientific progress, questions arise, such as: Where do we go from here? What can we expect next?  One of the invited authors for that special issue of Soil Science, Prof. G. H. Bolt, asked me to write the paper in which I set the course for a frontal attack on some of the then current essential problems regarding soil and water, viz. water retention in swelling soils. The paper was largely ignored. So. let me now try again. During the celebration of the contributions by Rien van Genuchten, I again would like to point the finger in a direction I believe rapid progress is possible.  And, Rien, L.A. lived and contributed for another 18 years after his 68^th birthday.