Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Dutch physicist
Who was Heike Kamerlingh Onnes?
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (Dutch: [ˈɦɛikə ˈkaːmərlɪŋ ˈɔnəs]; 21 September 1853 – 21 February 1926) was a Dutch experimental physicist who became the first to liquefy helium, cooling it to near 1.5 kelvin (K). Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born in Groningen, Netherlands, the son of Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, a brickworks owner, and Anna Gerdina Coers of Arnhem. In 1870, Kamerlingh Onnes attended the University of Groningen, where he earned his B.Sc. From 1871 to 1873, he studied under Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff at the University of Heidelberg. In 1911, using liquid helium to investigate the electrical conductivity of solid mercury, Kamerlingh Onnes found that its electrical resistance vanishes at 4.2 K, i.e. superconductivity. He then returned to Groningen, obtaining an M.Sc. The following year, he received his Ph.D. with a thesis on Earth's rotation.
In 1878, Kamerlingh Onnes became an assistant to Johannes Bosscha, the Director of the Delft Polytechnic, for whom he substituted as a lecturer in 1881 and 1882.
Historical significance
For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.