Stuart Hoekje’s Home
To the best of my knowledge I am the only Stuart Hoekje in
the world. The surname is Dutch and I believe
there are less than 100 Hoekje’s in the United States. The name Hoekje has a literal meaning in
Dutch of “Little Corner” but I have been told that is idiomatic and the name
actually means a cape or protrusion of land into a body of water. However the name Hoekje also has a meaning
in the lexicon of the internet.
Apparently it is Dutch for homepage or something comparable. So it is not unusual to see Dutch websites
where people refer to the site as their Hoekje.
I was a scientist for a number of years, originally taking
a position with IBM and then worked at the University of Illinois for a short
period. I returned to school and obtained a PhD in chemical engineering and was
a post-doctoral fellow at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. I
then worked as a civilian contractor at NASA - Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Virginia. Most of my work was
involved with the growth, processing and characterization of thin films. I enjoyed the work, accomplished some things
of note, published some papers and gave some presentations.
In the 90’s my career took a new direction and I became an
entrepreneur. My initial interest was
information technology and I developed a company named HMI Enterprises that
offered medical record storage and dissemination via a fax-back phone system
. The company never made a profit but
it introduced me to what has since become one of my passions; creating
technically innovative companies.
In 1994 I became involved in
the internet. The first internet
company was a travel and leisure services for Williamsburg and Virginia’s
historic triangle. It was called ITS Williamsburg. My
most successful internet business was a golf reservation system initially
called ForeAmerica that was renamed TeeTimes. At one time it had over 40 employees and
had raised in excess of $5 millions in venture capital. Ultimately it was taken over by the
investors. In 2001 the company became insolvent and was bought out by its
competitors.
For the past few years I have been involved in
biotechnology, specifically non-pharmaceutical methods for altering
neurological behavior. It is a complex
business model that is still in development but there is a potential upside
well in excess of $100 million possibly over a $1 billion. In 2002 a start-up company named The Tropos
Institute was created in Irving, Texas with a successful prototype for the
purpose of obtaining venture capital.
I have continued with the
neurological research as well as furthering the business model and seeking
appropriate collaboration. The
financial and medical possibilities of the work are exceptional More information is available at this
site
.
I have been teaching college chemistry at the local
community colleges in the Sacramento area for the past two years. I have a simple website that I use for the
work which can be visited here.
My involvement with internet has varied with time. In 1994 to 1999 I was very active and often
my name or my work would be one of the first items to appear on various search
engines. The past 5 years I have been
involved in other areas and I notice that my work is not as easily accessible
via the search engines. I have decided
to make a page with all links about my various activities that can be found on
the internet. It is here.
Please contact me via e-mail using the link below