The Dutch have often been at the forefront of science, espe cially during the 17th, late 19th, and early 20th centuries. Relative free dom from clerical control stimulated a fruitful climate for a curious spirit. Among the more famous Dutch scientists have been engineer Si mon Stevin, mathematician and astronomer Christiaan Huygens, botanists Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and Jan Swammerdam, and medical professor Hermann Boerhaave. Nobel prizes for the sciences have been awarded to several Dutch scientists: in chemistry, Jacobus van ’t Hoff, Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije (1884–1966), and Paul J. Crutzen; in physics, Hendrik Lorentz with Pieter Zeeman (1865–1943), Johannes van der Waals Sr., Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Frits Zernike, Simon van der Meer (1925– ), Gerard ’t Hooft (1946– ), and Martinus Justinus Godefridus (“Tini”) Veltman (1931– ); in medicine, Willem Einthoven (1860–1927), Christiaan Eykman (1858–1930), and Nikolaas Tinbergen; and in economics, Jan Tin bergen.
See also ASSER, Tobias Michael Carel(1838–1913); OORT, Jan Hendrik (1900–1992); PANNEKOEK, Anthonie (1873–1960); VRIES, Hugo de (1848–1935).
Historical Dictionary of the Netherlands. EdwART. 2012.