Hendrik Kramers (1894 - 1952)

Hendrik Kramers

Hendrik Anthony Kramers was a Dutch theoretical physicist and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.

Kramers studied mathematics and physics at Leiden University before being recruited in Copenhagen by future Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962). He tried to understand how electromagnetic waves interact with matter and made important contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical physics. Under Bohr's supervision, Kramers prepared his dissertation.

In 1926, Kramers left Denmark and became a professor of theoretical physics at Utrecht University, and from 1931 he also worked at Delft University of Technology. After the end of World War II, the scientist was active in Europe and taught in the United States.

Kramers' scientific works are devoted to atomic physics, quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, low-temperature physics, physical optics, and the kinetic theory of gases. Together with Ralph de Laer Kronig, he derived important equations relating absorption to the dispersion of light. Kramers' research on X-rays led to the development of equations for determining the efficiency and intensity of X-ray production.

In the 1930s, Kramers worked as an editor of a literary magazine, wrote and translated poetry into Dutch, and was an expert on the works of Shakespeare.