Hugo Christiaan Hamaker (23 March 1905 in

Broek op Langedijk Broek op Langedijk ( West Frisian Dutch: ''Broek op Lengedìk'') is a village in the municipality of Dijk en Waard in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. History The village was first mentioned in the 12th century as 1420 Broec, and ...

, North Holland – 7 September 1993 in Eindhoven) was a Dutch scientist, who was responsible for the Hamaker theory which explains the

van der Waals forces In molecular physics, the van der Waals force is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak and th ...

between objects larger than molecules. His 1937 paper was heavily cited. He completed his doctorate at the

Universiteit Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

in 1934. His dissertation was labelled: ''Reflectivity and Emissivity of

Tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

; with a Description of a New Method to Determine the Total Reflectivity of Any Surface in a Simple and Accurate Way''. His adviser was

Leonard Ornstein Leonard Salomon Ornstein (November 12, 1880 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands – May 20, 1941 in Utrecht, the Netherlands) was a Dutch physicist. Biography Ornstein studied theoretical physics with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz at University of Lei ...

. From 1934 to 1967 he was employed in the Physical Laboratory of

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

in Eindhoven, and from 1960 to 1972 he was Professor at the

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc an ...

. In 1959 he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

Publications

Hamaker published the following papers: *H.C. Hamaker (1934). Reflectivity and emissivity of tungsten : with a description of a new method to determine the total reflectivity of any surface in a simple and accurate way. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitg. Mij. x+76 pp. (PhD-thesis

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

) * H.C. Hamaker and W.F. Beezhold (1934). Gebrauch einer Selen Sperrschicht Photo Zelle zur Messung sehr schwacher Intensit¨aten. Physica 1, 119-122. * H.C. Hamaker (1937). The London-Van der Waals attraction between spherical particles. Physica 4(10), 1058–1072. * H.C. Hamaker (1942). A simple and general extension of the three halves power law. Physica 9(1), 135–138. * J.E. de Graaf and H.C. Hamaker (1942). The sorption of gases by barium. Physica 9(3), 297–309. * H.C. Hamaker (1950). Current distribution in triodes neglecting space charge and initial velocities. Applied Scientific Research, Section B, 1(1), 77–104. * H.C. Hamaker (1962). Applied statistics : an important phase in the development of experimental science (Inaugural lecture). Microelectronics and Reliability, 1(2), 101–109. * H.C. Hamaker (1962). On multiple regression analyses. Statistica Neerlandica, 16(1), 31–56. * H.C. Hamaker (1969). Nogmaals de wet en de kansspelen : commentaar op Hemelrijk's beschouwingen. Statistica Neerlandica, 23(3), 203–207. * H.C. Hamaker (1968). Some applications of statistics in chemical and physical classroom experiments. In European Meeting on Statistics, Econometrics and Manag. Sci. (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 2–7, 1968). * H.C. Hamaker (1969). De wet en de kansspelen. Statistica Neerlandica, 23(2), 179–191. * H.C. Hamaker (1970). Over claimfrekwenties, claimbedragen en risicopremies bij de privé-autoverzekering. Het Verzekerings-archief, 47, 154–174. * H.C. Hamaker (1971). New techniques of statistical teaching. Revue de l'Institut International de Statistique, 39(3), 351–360.

References

;General * * Joan Keen ''Obituary: Hugo Christian Hamaker (1905-93)''

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of London was founded ...

, Series A, Vol. 157, No. 3 (1994), pp. 500–501. * Mysels & Scholten
HC Hamaker, more than an equation
Langmuir 1991, 7, 209-211 * ;Specific

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamaker, H. C. 1905 births 1993 deaths People from Langedijk 20th-century Dutch physicists Utrecht University alumni Academic staff of the Eindhoven University of Technology Fellows of the American Statistical Association