Editing Lodewijk van den Berg (section)

==Education and early career==
Van den Berg was born in [[Sluiskil]], Netherlands. He was educated in the Netherlands and attended the [[Technical University Delft]] from 1949 to 1961, where he graduated with an [[Master of Science|MSc]] degree in [[chemical engineering]].<ref name="delft-integraal" /> He then moved to the United States and went to the [[University of Delaware]] where he obtained an [[Master of Science|MSc]] degree in [[applied science]] in 1972 followed by a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in applied science in 1975.<ref name="nasa-bio" />

[[Image:Crystal in VCGS furnace.jpg|thumb|A crystal in the VCGS furnace]]
He then was offered a job at [[EG&G Corporation]] Energy Measurements in [[Goleta, California]], working in crystal growth. EG&G was a [[defense contractor]] of the United States government and their business handled sensitive information in the field of science. Van den Berg was required to become a naturalized US citizen and became a US citizen in 1975. Van den Berg worked many years in research and acquired management experience in the preparation of [[crystalline]] materials—in particular, the growth of single crystals of chemical compounds, and the investigation of associated defect chemistry and electronic properties. He became an international authority on vapor growth techniques with an emphasis on [[Mercury(II) iodide|mercuric iodide]] crystals and its application in the nuclear industry as [[gamma ray]] detectors. While working at [[EG&G]], Van den Berg asked NASA for permission to conduct crystal growth experiments in space and NASA agreed.<ref name="nasa-bio" />