author
H. A. (Hendrik Antoon) Lorentz
1853–1928
A brilliant Dutch physicist, he helped build the path to modern physics with work on electromagnetism, the electron, and the ideas that later fed into relativity. He shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for explaining the Zeeman effect.
2 Audiobooks
The Einstein Theory of Relativity: A Concise Statement
by H. A. (Hendrik Antoon) Lorentz
Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory
by H. A. (Hendrik Antoon) Lorentz
About the author
Born in Arnhem, the Netherlands, on July 18, 1853, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz became one of the leading theoretical physicists of his time. He studied at Leiden University and later returned there as professor of theoretical physics, where he earned an international reputation for clear, powerful work in electromagnetism and optics.
Lorentz is especially remembered for the Lorentz force and the Lorentz transformations, mathematical ideas that became essential to the development of modern physics. His theory of electromagnetic radiation helped explain Pieter Zeeman's experimental results, and the two men shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on what became known as the Zeeman effect.
Beyond his research, Lorentz was admired as a thoughtful and generous scientific leader. He played an important role in international science, and his work strongly influenced later physicists, including Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity grew in part from foundations Lorentz had helped lay.