Pieter Hendrik van Cittert

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Pieter Hendrik van Cittert (born May 30, 1889 in Gouda , † October 8, 1959 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch physicist and science historian .

Van Cittert studied in Utrecht and received his doctorate there in 1918 under Willem Julius (1860–1925) (the subject of the dissertation was from solar spectroscopy). From 1916 to 1950 he was a teacher at the Higher Civic School in Utrecht. In addition, he was a conservator at the physics laboratory at the University of Utrecht from 1922 to 1950. 1951 to 1955 he was director of the University Museum in Utrecht.

In 1918 he found a large number of physical experiment devices from the inventory of the Natural History Society of Utrecht from the 18th century at the University of Utrecht, which formed the basic inventory of the University Museum of Utrecht established by van Cittert in 1928. Among them was a microscope by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek , which he described in 1935.

He published on optics (for example coherence theory ) and is known for the theorem of van Cittert and Zernike in the coherence theory of optics, which he established in 1934. Fritz Zernike found a simpler proof in 1938. The theorem of van Cittert and Zernike states that the mutual coherence function (MCF, complex degree of coherence) of a distant thermal light source is equal to the (complex) Fourier transform of its intensity. The Van Cittert deconvolution is named after him and he developed a spectral apparatus with two monochromators. He also published with Leonard Ornstein , at whose laboratory in Utrecht he conducted research.

He was married to the physicist and science historian Johanna Geertruida van Cittert-Eymers (1903–1988), who was his successor in 1955 as director of the University Museum in Utrecht.

In 1921 he was one of the founders of the Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging.

Fonts

  • Descriptive catalog of the collection of microscopes in charge of the Utrecht University Museum with an introductory historical survey of the resolving power of the microscope. Groningen, Noordhoff 1934
  • Het microscoop. Noorduijn, Gorinchem 1943
  • Astrolabes, a critical description of the astrolabes, noctilabes, and quadrants in the care of the Utrecht University Museum. Leiden, EJ Brill 1954

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Van Cittert, The "Van Leeuwenhoek Microscope" in possession of the University of Utrecht I, Proc. Acad. Amsterdam 35, 1935, p. 1062.
  2. ↑ Van Cittert, The Probable Vibration Distribution in a Plane Illuminated Directly by a Light Source or Using a Lens, Physica, Volume 1, 1934, pp. 201-210
  3. ^ Zernike, The concept of degree of coherence and its application to optical problems, Physica, Volume 5, 1938, pp. 785-795.
  4. ↑ Spectrum Lexicon of Optics
personal data
SURNAME Cittert, Pieter Hendrik van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch physicist and historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Gouda cheese
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1959
Place of death Utrecht