Nobel Prize for Physics

On 4 November 1953, Professor Frits Zernike was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the phase contrast microscope. This instrument made it possible to look at living cells and bacteria. For the first time ever, the process of cell division could be studied under the microscope. Zernike's invention was thus a significant breakthrough for medical and biological sciences.

At the very same date sixty years later, the Faculty of Science and Engineering (former Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences) commemorated one of its great milestones in top research in a light-hearted way and exactly as Frits Zernike did at the time: with chocolate. On 4 November, visitors, students and staff on the Zernike Campus were treated to chocolates. They could also attend a lecture about the life and work of Frits Zernike in the Nijenborgh 4 building for Physics and Chemistry, to brush up on their knowledge of Zernike's invention.