PHYSICIST

Nicolaas Bloembergen

1920 - 2017

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Nicolaas Bloembergen (March 11, 1920 – September 5, 2017) was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a professor at Harvard University and later at the University of Arizona and at Leiden University in 1973 (as Lorentz Professor). Bloembergen shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Arthur Schawlow and Kai Siegbahn because their work "has had a profound effect on our present knowledge of the constitution of matter" through the use of laser spectroscopy. In particular, Bloembergen was singled out because he "founded a new field of science we now call non-linear optics" by mixing "two or more beams of laser light... Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Nicolaas Bloembergen is the 149th most popular physicist (up from 159th in 2019), the 49th most popular biography from Netherlands (up from 68th in 2019) and the 9th most popular Dutch Physicist.

Nicolaas Bloembergen is most famous for his work in the field of optics, specifically the development of the laser.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Nicolaas Bloembergen ranks 149 out of 851. Before him are Roger Penrose, Louis Néel, Rudolf Mössbauer, Kai Siegbahn, Clifford Shull, and John Bardeen. After him are George Paget Thomson, Walter Houser Brattain, Henry Moseley, Laura Bassi, John Kendrew, and Javier Solana.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1920, Nicolaas Bloembergen ranks 18. Before him are Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Pran, Paul Celan, Mario Puzo, Owen Chamberlain, and Frank Herbert. After him are Melina Mercouri, Amália Rodrigues, Gianni Rodari, Richard von Weizsäcker, Charlie Parker, and François Jacob. Among people deceased in 2017, Nicolaas Bloembergen ranks 19. Before him are Jeanne Moreau, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Salvatore Riina, Ali Abdullah Saleh, David Rockefeller, and Chuck Berry. After him are Manuel Noriega, Hans Georg Dehmelt, John Hurt, Hugh Hefner, Mireille Darc, and Jerry Lewis.

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In Netherlands

Among people born in Netherlands, Nicolaas Bloembergen ranks 49 out of 1,646. Before him are Johan Huizinga (1872), Rinus Michels (1928), Jan Tinbergen (1903), James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649), William II of the Netherlands (1792), and Jan Steen (1626). After him are Max Euwe (1901), Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907), Isabelle de Charrière (1740), Ruud Gullit (1962), Frits Zernike (1888), and Paul J. Crutzen (1933).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Netherlands

Among physicists born in Netherlands, Nicolaas Bloembergen ranks 9. Before him are Daniel Bernoulli (1700), Pieter Zeeman (1865), Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853), Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837), Peter Debye (1884), and Simon van der Meer (1925). After him are Frits Zernike (1888), Martinus J. G. Veltman (1931), Gerard 't Hooft (1946), Jan Ingenhousz (1730), Hans Kramers (1894), and Samuel Goudsmit (1902).

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