Nicolaas Bloembergen - Honors

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.

from University of Leiden in 1948 and then became a professor at Harvard University.

Bloembergen left Netherlands in 1945 due to devastation of Europe from World War II to pursue graduate studies at Harvard University. Gorter at Netherlands he joined Harvard as a junior fellow of Society of Fellows in 1949 and Associate Professor in 1951. Nicolaas Bloembergen shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arthur Schawlow and Kai Siegbahn for their work in laser spectroscopy.

Bloembergen belongs to prolific J. Thomson academic lineage tree, following in footsteps of other Nobel Laureates beginning with Lord Rayleigh (Physics Nobel Prize in 1904) and J. Thomson (Nobel 1906), and continued with Ernest Rutherford (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908), Owen Richardson (Physics Nobel, 1918) and finally Bloembergen's advisor, Edward Purcell (Physics Nobel 1952). His other influences included John Van Vleck (Physics Nobel 1977) and Percy Bridgman (Physics Nobel 1946).

Honors

Correspondent, Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam, 1956 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1956 Member, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D. C., 1959 Foreign Honorary Member, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, 1978 Associé Étranger, Académie des Sciences, Paris, 1980 Guggenheim Fellow, 1957 Oliver Buckley Prize, American Physical Society, 1958 Morris E. Liebman Award, Institute of Radio Engineers, 1959 Stuart Ballantine Medal, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 1961 National Medal of Science, President of the United States of America, 1974 Lorentz Medal, Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam, 1979 Frederic Ives Medal, Optical Society of America, 1979 Von Humboldt Senior Scientist, 1980