Johannes Petrus "Han" Woerdman (29 November 1942 – 18 August 2020) was a Dutch physicist. He was a researcher at

Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium The Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (English translation: ''Philips Physics Laboratory'') or NatLab was the Dutch section of the Philips research department, which did research for the product divisions of that company. Originally located in the ...

and later professor at Leiden University.

Life

Woerdman was born on 29 November 1942 in

Laren, North Holland Laren () is a town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the Gooi region, it is the oldest town in the area. Together with its neighbor Blaricum, Laren is one of the most affluent towns in the Netherlands. N ...

. In 1968 he started working at

. He obtained his PhD in mathematics at the University of Amsterdam in 1971 under Andries Rinse Miedema with a thesis titled: "Some optical and electrical properties of a laser-generated free-carrier plasma in Si." In 1983 he left Philips and was appointed professor of experimental physics at Leiden University. At Leiden University Woerdman performed research into lasers and optics, specializing in

classical optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

. He was responsible for building the field of

quantum optics Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have ...

at the University. In 2020 one of the articles he contributed to in 1992 was chosen as one of three classics of '' Physical Review A''. Woerdman was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. In 2007 he was named a Fellow of the European Optical Society. In 2010 he was diagnosed with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, which caused his death on 18 August 2020 at the age of 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woerdman, Han 1942 births 2020 deaths Deaths from Parkinson's disease Neurological disease deaths in the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch physicists Laser researchers Academic staff of Leiden University Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Optical physicists People from Laren, North Holland University of Amsterdam alumni