Heike Kamerlingh Onnes chair for Prof. dr. Bart van Wees (2018)

The Faculty of Science and Engineering has honoured Prof. dr. Bart van Wees by appointing him on the Heike Kamerlingh Onnes chair. The named chairs recognize the excellence of the professor.

Bart van Wees

Bart van Wees is professor at the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials (Faculty of Science and Engineering) and full professor of Physics of Nanodevices since 2000. Van Wees is a world-leading physicist in quantum electronic transport. He has contributed to forefront discoveries in nanoelectronics, mesoscopic systems, spintronics and (most recently) spincaloritronics and novel 2D materials. In addition to numerous other activities, Van Wees plays a leading role in the EU’s Graphene Flagship Project since 2013. A staggering € 1 billion is invested in this programme for research into graphene until 2023. In 2016, Van Wees was awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic award in the Netherlands.

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926), who gave his name to the chair, was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He was born in Groningen and studied physics and mathematics at the University of Groningen. He obtained a doctorate in 1879. In 1882, he served as professor at the University of Leiden. In 1908, he was the first to liquefy helium and he was also the discoverer of superconductivity in 1911. Kamerlingh Onnes received widespread recognition for his work, including the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics for his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures.