"It was a great pleasure to work with Alwyn on all the many book projects over the years. He had impeccable scientific judgement, which made my role much easier. I was extremely proud to be his friend. Over the many years I worked with Alwyn on many projects, I grew to respect him immensely. He was a quiet person who was very intelligent, kind and generous."

Publisher Dr. David Larner

"I want to congratulate you on having founded this new journal, and even more on the way you are running the old Foundations which I find excellent."

Sir Karl Popper

"There is no way I can thank you for all the care and thought that went into [Between Quantum and Cosmos: Studies and Essays in Honor of John Archibald Wheeler]. It creates a spot in my heart that will be forever warm."

Prof. Dr. John Archibald Wheeler

“Of course you are the only one who can and must continue as editor in chief of Foundations [of Physics], and I express my fullest approval and confidence in your management of its affairs. Should any doubts be expressed on this important issue I would defend the new arrangement with vigor. The journal is unique, and you are the only one who can retain its status.”

Prof. Dr. Henry Margenau

“I have learned more theory and application from him in one hour per week than I have learned in the three hours of lecture and two hours of laboratory sessions per week conducted by other people. I hold Dr. van der Merwe to be a superior teacher in every respect. It was a pleasure to be a student in his class.”

Ronald B. Standler, Ph.D., J.D. (student of Prof. van der Merwe)

"He was an enthusiastic and supportive professor, and I very much enjoyed taking physics with him at DU."

Krista S. Jacobsen, Ph.D., J.D. (studen of Prof. van der Merwe)

"...Alwyn van der Merwe is a truly essential man in contemporary physics. He has devoted his scientific and editorial activity to the difficult foundations of modern physics, a field in which fundamental ideas are not merely accepted (as everybody else in physics does), but analyzed and debated...[His] journals and books are the central publications around which the whole activity on the foundations of modern physics is rotating. The most intelligent papers and books concerning the nature of modern physics, and preparing its future, have almost invariably been edited (sometimes personally stimulated) by Alwyn van der Merwe. Special issues of Foundations of Physics have been dedicated to the most interesting people in the field: Asim Barut, John Bell, David Bohm, Max Jammer, Karl Popper, ..."

Prof. Dr. Franco Selleri

"I didn’t know [Alwyn] personally, but we knew each other very well by email. In addition to what was already said by Erasmo about our common books on Ettore Majorana, I'd like to add a few words about his extreme care as editor of the journal. Foundations of Physics, which, in my opinion, was no longer reached later. Also, I remember with affection and esteem curious episodes about my works on Majorana when I finished a given research paper about Majorana, which I judged appropriate to send for consideration to Foundations of Physics."

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Esposito

"Professor van der Merwe's name is a household word among scholars in the foundations of physics all over the world. He is regularly asked to serve on international organizing committees, and his opinion and participation are frequently sought in matters of publication. A telling example of the respect accorded his writing and editing skills is the selection of Professor van der Merwe by the Louis de Broglie Foundation (Paris) to be one of three editors (the other two are French) of the massive publication project that will in the coming years be devoted to the works of Louis Duc de Broglie, a cofounder of quantum mechanics and France’s greatest physicist of this century.

The great potential of Professor van der Merwe's writing activities to enrich his teaching and to benefit his students is, of course, obvious. The Quantum Paradoxes book, for example, is an ideal text for any student wanting to enter the field of foundations. And I think it is a telling tribute to Professor van der Merwe's versatile background as a scholar that he has been called upon to teach no less than three out of the four graduate courses offered by our department during the last two quarters.

It is most unfortunate that, probably due to the unique nature of Professor van der Merwe's scholarly activities, he has not been given the credit by his colleagues which I think he so overwhelmingly deserves."

Prof. Dr. Aaron Goldman

"Alwyn—with his intelligence, culture, open-mindedness—played a very important role in diffusing and strengthening the foundations of physics and the love for them. With his journal, in our own case, he helped us in publishing work of ours on the structure of spinning particles, as well on the related Barut-Zanghi theory. What I want to recall particularly here is that, at the beginning of this century, when he realized that we had scientific manuscripts left unpublished by Ettore Majorana (who had been judged by Enrico Fermi to be "a genius like Galileo and Newton"), he spontaneously decided, "by his own", to ask for [funding] from the Italian Embassy in Washington.

With the eight thousand dollars that he got, we started to publish in 2003 c/o Kluwer, a first volume on Majorana's manuscripts! Subsequently, we obtained different funds for publishing further volumes on Majorana's manuscripts (such as the 2009 book, c/o Springer):  But the starting point was the generous interest, and initiative, by van der Merwe, who has immediately grasped the importance of the manuscripts left unpublished by Ettore Majorana."

Prof.Dr. Erasmo Recami

"He had been such a unique and interesting person—our "Einstein" of physics and good friend over the past 38 years we knew him. We shall never forget his dry sense of humor, jogging heavily-clad through foot-deep Denver snow, struggling to swallow his giant multivitamin capsules to keep the flu away, his warnings of "no violence" when watching the hourlong TV news interrupted by frequent "messages", and getting stuck on the snowed-in road to the Continental Divide when not heeding his warning to rather stay put at home."

Prof. Dr. Rikus Saayman 

“He is one of the most eminent theoretical physicists of the late twentieth century” He is probably the best editor of the late twentieth century in theoretical physics. I remember with gratitude the steadfast intellectual support he gave my first wife and myself in the dark days."

Prof. Dr. Myron Evans

"He will be sorely missed, not only for his work as a multi-faceted scientist but also, once again, as a terrific human being to whom I owe very much."

Prof. Dr. Jose G. Vargas

“....his exceptional sageness, and attitude, insistence and patient, toward "controversial approaches. .. having had the honor of witnessing, no matter what would have been the conservative reactions he would have been subject to, he did only what he felt right to do, followed his conscience, but first I believe, his immense knowledge of science, and came up with decisions, no doubt disturbing the Monks of the Science Church... “

Prof. Dr. Tolga Yarman