Pieter Zeeman was born on May 25, 1865, at Zonnemaire, a small village in the isle of Schouwen, Zeeland, The Netherlands.

Zeeman entered Leyden University in 1885 and became mainly a pupil of Kamerlingh Onnes (mechanics) and Lorentz (experimental physics): the latter was later to share the Nobel Prize with him. An early reward came in 1890 when he was appointed assistant to Lorentz, enabling him to participate in an extensive research programme which included the study of the Kerr effect - an important foundation for his future great work. He obtained his doctor's degree in 1893, after which he left for F. Kohlrausch's institute at Strasbourg, where for one semester he carried out work under E. Cohn. He returned to Leyden in 1894 and became "privaat-docent" (extra-mural lecturer) from 1895 to 1897.

His first treatise Mesures relatives du phénomène de Kerr, written in 1892, was rewarded with a Gold Medal from the Dutch Society of Sciences at Haarlem; his doctor's thesis dealt with the same subject. In Strasbourg he studied the propagation and absorption of electrical waves in fluids. His principal work, however, was the study of the influence of magnetism on the nature of light radiation, started by him in the summer of 1896, which formed a logical continuation of his investigation into the Kerr effect. The discovery of the so-called Zeeman effect, for which he has been awarded the Nobel Prize, was communicated to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam.

The growing number of observations made by other investigators on studying the effects of using various substances as light emitters - not all of them explicable by Lorentz' original theory (the so-called «anomalous Zeeman effect» could only adequately be explained at a later date, with the advent of Bohr's atomic theory, quantum wave mechanics, and the concept of the electron spin). Not only has the Zeeman effect thrown much light on the mechanism of light radiation and on the nature of matter and electricity, but its immense importance lies in the fact that even to this day it offers the ultimate means for revealing the intimate structure of the atom and the nature and behaviour of its components. It still serves as the final test in any new theory of the atom.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1902

"in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena"

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz	Pieter Zeeman
1/2 of the prize	1/2 of the prize
the Netherlands	the Netherlands
Leiden University	Amsterdam University
Leiden, the Netherlands	Amsterdam, the Netherlands
b. 1853	b. 1865
d. 1928	d. 1943

PIETER ZEEMAN

1902 Nobel Laureate in Physics

in recognition of the extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomena.

Background

1865-1943
Residence: the Netherlands
Affiliation: Amsterdam University