Dirk ter Haar
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
FIP DSc (;
Oosterwolde, 19 April 1919 –
Drachten
Drachten () is a town in the northern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Smallingerland, Friesland. It had a population of around 45,186 in January 2017 and is the second largest town in the province of Friesland.
History Begin ...
, 3 September 2002) was an Anglo-Dutch physicist.
[
]
Life
Dirk ter Haar was born at Oosterwolde in the province Friesland
Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
in the north of the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
on 19 April 1919.
He studied physics at the University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
in Scotland and Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in England, obtaining an MA degree before carrying out postgraduate studies at Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
. In 1946 he was a research fellow of Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
(now the Niels Bohr Institute
The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics. ...
), and received his PhD in Leiden in 1948 from Hendrik Kramers
Hendrik Anthony "Hans" Kramers (17 December 1894 – 24 April 1952) was a Dutch physicist who worked with Niels Bohr to understand how electromagnetic waves interact with matter and made important contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical ...
for a dissertation on the origin of the Solar System. From 1947 to 1950 he was a visiting associate professor of physics at Purdue University
Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...
.
In 1950 he obtained a post as professor of physics at the University of St. Andrews, and later became a British citizen
British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...
. In 1952 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
. His proposers were Jack Allen, David Jack, Daniel Edwin Rutherford and Edward Thomas Copson
Edward Thomas Copson FRSE (21 August 1901 – 16 February 1980) was a British mathematician who contributed widely to the development of mathematics at the University of St Andrews, serving as Regius Professor of Mathematics amongst other pos ...
.
He became a Fellow and Senior Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
and Reader
A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in theoretical physics at the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.[
In 1966 Ter Haar became a corresponding member of the ]Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
.
Many prominent scientists studied under Ter Haar, including Anthony Leggett
Sir Anthony James Leggett (born 26 March 1938) is a British-American theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Leggett is widely recognised as a world leader in the theory of low-temperatur ...
, winner of the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
in Physics in 2003, and Deng Jiaxian
Deng Jiaxian (; June 25, 1924 – July 29, 1986) was a Chinese nuclear physicist and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was a leading organizer and key contributor to the Chinese nuclear weapon programs.
Biography
Deng was b ...
, one of the leading scientists and founders of Chinese nuclear weapons
The People's Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964, and its first hydrogen bomb test occurred in 196 ...
programs.
Dirk could read Russian, and played a prominent role in disseminating the works of Soviet physicists such as Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...
and Kapitsa to the western world. He also translated the classic monograph ''Quantum Mechanics'' by Alexander Davydov
Alexander Sergeevich Davydov (russian: Александр Сергеевич Давы́дов, uk, Олекса́ндр Сергі́йович Дави́дов) (26 December 1912 – 19 February 1993) was a Soviet and Ukrainian physicist. Davyd ...
into English.
He retired from his positions at Oxford in 1986, and died at Drachten
Drachten () is a town in the northern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Smallingerland, Friesland. It had a population of around 45,186 in January 2017 and is the second largest town in the province of Friesland.
History Begin ...
in the northern Netherlands on 3 September 2002.
Family
In 1949 Dirk ter Haar married Christine Janet Lound and together they had two sons and a daughter. His daughter, Gail ter Haar, became a reader in physics as well, specializing in therapeutic ultrasound
Therapeutic ultrasound refers generally to any type of ultrasonic procedure that uses ultrasound for therapeutic benefit. Physiotherapeutic ultrasound was introduced into clinical practice in the 1950s, with lithotripsy introduced in the 1980s. ...
.
Works
He wrote numerous books on physics, such as ''Elements of Statistical Mechanics'' (1954). In addition, he wrote a book on Kramers and was a founding editor for ''Physics Letters
''Physics Letters'' was a scientific journal published from 1962 to 1966, when it split in two series now published by Elsevier:
*''Physics Letters A'': condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, nonlinear science, statistical physics, mathema ...
'' (1962) (later ''Physics Letters A
''Physics Letters'' was a scientific journal published from 1962 to 1966, when it split in two series now published by Elsevier:
*''Physics Letters A'': condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, nonlinear science, statistical physics, mathema ...
'') and ''Physics Reports
''Physics Reports'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, a review section of ''Physics Letters'' that has been published by Elsevier since 1971. The journal publishes long and deep reviews on all aspects of physics. In average, the length of thes ...
'' (1971).[ In 1984 the book ''Essays in Theoretical Physics in honour of Dirk ter Haar'' was published in honour of his work in ]statistical physics
Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the Mathematics, mathematical tools for dealing with large populations ...
and quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
.
* D. ter Haar, ''Elements of Statistical Mechanics''. London: Constable (1954). 2ed (1966) New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston; 3ed (1995) Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann
* D. ter Haar and H.N.S. Wergeland, ''Elements of Thermodynamics'', Addison-Wesley, 1966
* D. ter Haar, ''Elements of Hamiltonian Mechanics'', Pergamon Press, Oxford.
* D. ter Haar, ''The Old Quantum Theory'', Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1967.
* D. ter Haar,
On the Origin of the Solar System
, '' Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics'', Vol.5, Oxford, 1967:267-278, .
* D. ter Haar, ''Lectures on Selected Topics in Statistical Mechanics'', Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1977.
* D. ter Haar, ''Master of Modern Physics. The Scientific Contributions of H. A. Kramers'', Princeton University Press, 1998.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haar, Dirk ter
1919 births
2002 deaths
20th-century Dutch physicists
20th-century British physicists
British people of Frisian descent
Leiden University alumni
Academics of the University of St Andrews
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford
People from Ooststellingwerf
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Dutch emigrants to the United Kingdom
Dutch expatriates in the United States