Hans Willem Capel (born 3 June 1936) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He was a professor of theoretical physics at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

between 1983 and 1998. Capel was born in Sceaux, France. He obtained his PhD in mathematics and physics 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 1965 with a dissertation titled: "The hole-equivalence principle, the Van Vleck relation and the application to the theory of d-ions in Ligand fields". Capel subsequently was a lector of theoretical physics at the same university in 1970, and served as professor between 1979 and 1983. He is well known for introducing, 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 ...

, the ''Blume-Capel model'', describing

tricritical point In condensed matter physics, dealing with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, a tricritical point is a point in the phase diagram of a system at which three-phase coexistence terminates. This definition is clearly parallel to the defin ...

s. Capel was elected a 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 ...

in 1990.

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* 1936 births Living people 20th-century Dutch physicists Leiden University alumni Leiden University faculty Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Theoretical physicists University of Amsterdam faculty {{physicist-stub