Dirk ter Haar | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1919-04-19)April 19, 1919 |
| Died | September 3, 2002(2002-09-03) (aged 83) |
| Nationality | Dutch British |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of St. Andrews University of Oxford |
| Thesis | Studies on the origin of the Solar System (1948) |
| Academic advisors | Hendrik Kramers |
| Doctoral students | Anthony James Leggett Deng Jiaxian |
Dirk ter HaarFRSE FIP[clarification needed] DSc (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈdɪr(ə)ktɛrˈɦaːr]; 19 April 1919 –3 September 2002) was an Anglo-Dutch physicist.[1] He was emeritus fellow ofUniversity of Oxford.
Dirk ter Haar was born atOosterwolde inFriesland in the north of theNetherlands on 19 April 1919.He studied physics as an undergraduate at theLeiden University.[2] In 1946 he was a research fellow ofNiels Bohr at the Institute for Theoretical Physics inCopenhagen (now theNiels Bohr Institute), and returned to Leiden in 1948 to obtain his PhD. His supervisor wasHendrik Kramers and his PhD dissertation was on theorigin of the Solar System.[3] From 1947 to 1950 he was a visiting associate professor of physics atPurdue University.
In 1950 he obtained a post as professor of physics at theUniversity of St. Andrews, and later became aBritish citizen. In 1952 he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers wereJack Allen,David Jack,Daniel Edwin Rutherford andEdward Thomas Copson.[4]
He became a Fellow and Senior Tutor ofMagdalen College, Oxford andReader in theoretical physics at theUniversity of Oxford.[1]
In 1966, Ter Haar became a corresponding member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]
Many prominent scientists were PhD students under Ter Haar, includingAnthony James Leggett, winner of theNobel Prize in Physics in 2003, andDeng Jiaxian, one of the leading scientists and founders ofChinese nuclear weapons programs.
Dirk could read Russian, and played a prominent role in disseminating the works of Soviet physicists such asLev Landau andPyotr Kapitsa to the western world.[1] He also translated the classic monographQuantum Mechanics byAlexander Davydov into English.
He retired from his positions at Oxford in 1986, and died atDrachten in Friesland on 3 September 2002.
In 1949 Dirk ter Haar married Christine Janet Lound and together they had two sons and a daughter. His daughter, Gail ter Haar, became a reader in physics as well, specializing intherapeutic ultrasound.[6]
He wrote numerous books on physics, such asElements of Statistical Mechanics (1954). In addition, he wrote a book on Kramers and was a founding editor forPhysics Letters (1962) (laterPhysics Letters A) andPhysics Reports (1971).[1] In 1984 the bookEssays in Theoretical Physics in honour of Dirk ter Haar was published in honour of his work instatistical physics andquantum mechanics.
