Johannes Diderik van der Waals

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Johannes van der Waals

Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Born	November 23, 1837 Leiden, Netherlands
Died	March 8, 1923 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Residence	Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Field	Physicist
Institution	University of Amsterdam
Alma Mater	University of Leiden
Academic Advisor	Pieter Rijke
Notable Students	Diederik Korteweg
Known for	Intermolecular forces
Notable Prizes	Nobel Prize for Physics (1910)
He is notably the father of the poet Jacqueline Elisabeth and the physicist Johannes Diderik Jr.

Johannes Diderik van der Waals (November 23, 1837 – March 8, 1923) was a Dutch scientist famous "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids", for which he won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1910. Van der Waals was the first to realize the necessity of taking into account the volumes of molecules and the intermolecular forces (now generally called "van der Waals forces") in establishing the relationship between the pressure, volume and temperature of gases and liquids.

Contents 1 Family 2 Biography 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References and further reading 6 External links

[edit] Family

• spouse = Anna Magdalena Smit (m. 1864)
• children = Anne Madeleine, Jacqueline Elisabeth (poet), Johanna Diderica, Johannes Diderik Jr. (physicist)

[edit] Biography

Van der Waals was born in Leiden, the Netherlands, as the son of Jacobus van der Waals and Elisabeth van den Burg. He became a school teacher, and later was allowed to study at the university, in spite of his lack of education in the field of classical languages. He studied from 1862 to 1865, earning degrees in mathematics and physics. He was married to Anna Magdalena Smit and had three daughters and one son.

In 1866, he became director of a secondary school in The Hague. In 1873, he obtained a doctorate degree under Pieter Rijke for his thesis entitled "Over de Continuïteit van den Gas- en Vloeistoftoestand" (On the continuity of the gas and liquid state). In 1876, he was appointed the first professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam.

Van der Waals died in Amsterdam in 1923, one year after his daughter's death.

[edit] See also

• Van der Waals bonding
• Van der Waals equation
• Van der Waals force
• Van der Waals radius

[edit] Notes

[edit] References and further reading

• Kipnis, Aleksandr Yakovlevich, Boris Efimovich Yavelov, and John Shipley Rowlinson (July 1996). Van der Waals and Molecular Science. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-855210-6.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johannes Diderik van der Waals

• Scientists of the Dutch School Van der Waals, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Albert van Helden Johannes Diderik van der Waals 1837 – 1923 In: K. van Berkel, A. van Helden and L. Palm ed., A history of Science in the Netherlands. Survey, Themes and Reference (Leiden: Brill, 1999) 596 - 598.
• Johannes Diderik van der Waals - Biography at Nobelprize.org.
• Museum Boerhaave Negen Nederlandse Nobelprijswinnaars
• H.A.M. Snelders, Waals Sr., Johannes Diderik van der (1837-1923), in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland.
• Biography of Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837 – 1923) at the National library of the Netherlands.