Pieter Zeeman
Pieter Zeeman (Zonnemaire (Schouwen-Duiveland), Netherlands, May 25, 1865 – Amsterdam, October 9, 1943) (IPA [zeɪmɑn]) was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Hendrik Lorentz for his discovery of the Zeeman effect.
Born in Zonnemaire, Netherlands to Catharinus Forandinus Zeeman and Wilhelmina Worst, Zeeman was a student of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes at the University of Leiden. He began lecturing at Leiden in 1890. In 1896, at the request of Lorentz, he began investigating the effect of magnetic fields on a light source and discovered what is now known as the Zeeman effect. This discovery proved Lorentz's theory of electromagnetic radiation.
Zeeman was appointed professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam in 1900. In 1908 he became director of its Physics Institute.
He won the Henry Draper Medal in 1921. Zeeman crater on the moon is named in his honor.
References
Paul Forman, "Alfred Landé and the anomalous Zeeman Effect, 1919-1921", Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, Vol. 2, 1970, 153-261.
External links
- P.F.A. Klinkenberg, Zeeman, Pieter (1865-1943), in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland.
- biography at the Nobel e-museum.
- photo & short info