Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes (1853-1926)

Awarded the Prize “for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium.”

Dutch physicist. Onnes was born on September 21, 1853 at Groningen, the Netherls. In 1870 he entered the University of Groningen, obtained his B.Sc. the following year, passed his M.Sc. in 1878 obtained his doctor’s degree in 1879. In 1882 he was appointed Professor of Experimental Physics Meteorology at Leyden University. Onnes was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London. Onnes died in Leiden on February 21, 1926.