Roelofs arrived at Haverford embroiled in a scientific debate that pitted him and a colleague from Brown against a group of scientists in England. The battle, which would continue through his first several years at Haverford, concerned the arrangement of surface atoms on the metal tungsten at low temperatures. Diagrams and foam models are hauled out for clarification. Suffice it to say that the results of several experiments proved him right and validated the predictive power of his calculations versus those of his adversaries. Looking back, Roelofs notes that the rivalry between the groups was less acrimonious than animated.
People pay a lot of attention.
When groups are going at it, there's some real entertainment value. I liked the research, no question, but I thought the undergrads were getting a raw deal. It was at Calvin, his parents' alma mater and the place where he met his wife, Lauren, that Roelofs flirted with the notion of following his father into the ministry. Surprisingly, Roelofs claims that his religious faith actually buttresses his work against poststructuralist critiques that challenge the supposed objectivity of scientific practices and even the truth of physical reality itself. His philosophical bent has also made him especially sensitive to the effect of postmodern skepticism on potential student scientists.