Willem Keesom | |
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![]() Willem Keesom in 1926 | |
Born | 21 June 1876
Texel, Netherlands |
Died | 3 March 1956
Leiden, Netherlands | (aged 79)
Known for | helium |
Scientific career | |
Fields | physics |
Doctoral advisor | Johannes Diderik van der Waals |
Willem Hendrik Keesom ( /ˈkeɪsoʊm/ [1] [2]) (21 June 1876, Texel – 3 March 1956, Leiden) was a Dutch physicist who, in 1926, invented a method to freeze liquid helium. He also developed the first mathematical description of dipole–dipole interactions in 1921. Thus, dipole–dipole interactions are also known as Keesom interactions. He was previously a student of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who had discovered superconductivity (a feat for which Kamerlingh Onnes received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics).
He also discovered the lambda point transition specific-heat maximum between Helium-I and Helium-II in 1930. [3]
In 1924 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. [4] In 1966, the minor planet 9686 Keesom was named after him.