biography
| name: |
Bloembergen, Nicolaas
|
pronunciation:
[bloombergen]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1920– )
|
| biography:
| Physicist, born in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. After completing studies at the State University of Leiden in his homeland, he went to the USA (1946) to take up a post as a research assistant at Harvard. He returned to the State University of Leiden to take his PhD (1947–8) but then came back to Harvard as a junior fellow, joining the faculty in 1951 and becoming the Gordon McKay professor of applied physics (1951), then Rumford Professor (1974), and finally the Gerhard Gade University Professor (1980). He received many honours for his work, including the National Medal of Science (1974). He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physics with the American Arthur Schawlow and the Swedish professor Kai Siegbahn. Bloembergen and Schawlow were cited for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy; Bloembergen's work in the field of nonlinear optics was especially crucial in explaining and then averting the problems in producing high intensity laser beams. |
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