Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Biography

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853, in Groningen, in the northern Netherlands. He attended the University of Groningen and then did further studies at Heidelberg University in Germany, where he was influenced by the well-known physicist Robert Bunsen and chemist Gustav Kirchhoff. These early experiences shaped his dedication to precise experimental work and strict lab procedures. Returning to the Netherlands, he became a professor of experimental physics at the University of Leiden in 1882, a position he held for the rest of his career.

At Leiden, Kamerlingh Onnes established the world's most advanced low-temperature lab, which he named the Cryogenic Laboratory. He believed that understanding matter required studying it at extremely low temperatures, a belief summed up in his motto 'door meten tot weten,' or 'through measurement to knowledge.' Over the years, he developed the tools and techniques needed to liquefy gases at ever-lower temperatures. His hard work paid off on July 10, 1908, when he became the first person to liquefy helium, reaching a temperature of about 1.5 kelvin, closer to absolute zero than anyone had managed before.

Three years after liquefying helium, in 1911, Kamerlingh Onnes used his supply of liquid helium to study how electrical resistance in metals changed at very low temperatures. When he cooled solid mercury to 4.2 kelvin, he discovered something groundbreaking: the electrical resistance dropped to zero. He called this phenomenon superconductivity. Further tests confirmed this effect in other metals, showing that superconductivity was a common physical phenomenon, not just unique to mercury.

In recognition of his success in liquefying helium and his extensive experimental work at Leiden, Kamerlingh Onnes received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913. He also won the Rumford Medal in 1912, the Matteucci Medal in 1910, and the Franklin Medal in 1915. In 1916, he became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. He married Maria Adriana Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bijleveld, and they stayed in the Netherlands throughout his career. He passed away in Leiden on February 21, 1926, having witnessed the significant growth of low-temperature physics based on his pioneering efforts.

The Leiden lab run by Kamerlingh Onnes trained many scientists and provided liquid helium to researchers across Europe who couldn't make it themselves, turning Leiden into a center for experimental physics for the early twentieth century. His discovery of superconductivity sparked a field that has inspired more than a century of research, leading to practical uses in medical imaging, particle accelerators, and quantum computing.