Aldert van der Ziel (12 December 1910, Zandeweer – 20 January 1991,

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

), was a Dutch physicist who studied

electronic noise In electronics, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal. Noise generated by electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different effects. In particular, noise is inherent in physics and central to thermod ...

processes in materials such as

semiconductors A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping levels ...

and metals.

Biography

Aldert van der Ziel was a pioneering researcher into the phenomenon of

flicker noise Flicker noise is a type of electronic noise with a 1/''f'' power spectral density. It is therefore often referred to as 1/''f'' noise or pink noise, though these terms have wider definitions. It occurs in almost all electronic devices and can show ...

in physical electronics. He published 15 books and more than 500 scientific papers. He was also a writer on Christianity, particularly the relationship between science and religion. Van der Ziel belonged to a conservative

Lutheran church Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

. Van der Ziel obtained a Ph.D. in 1934 from the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

. He worked at

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

until 1947. In 1947 he went to

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada and moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1950 to become professor of electrical engineering. He was also associated, later, with the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

at Gainesville. Aldert van der Ziel was elected in 1978 as a member of

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in Electronics, Communication & Information Systems Engineering for contributions to the study of

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

in electron devices and contributions to graduate education. The

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

has an award named after Aldert van der Ziel, which is given during the biennial ''International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium'' (ISDRS) sponsored by the

IEEE Electron Devices Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

, for "a distinguished career in education and research". Past recipients are Lester Eastmann,

Herbert Kroemer Herbert Kroemer (; August 25, 1928 – March 8, 2024) was a German-American physicist who, along with Zhores Alferov, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for "developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electro ...

(

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

winner), Michael Shur, Marvin H. White, James D. Plummer, Ben Streetman, Mark Lundstrom and Tsu-Jae King Liu.

Awards

* 1956:

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

* 1975: Honorary doctorate, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse * 1978: National Academy of Engineering * 1980:

IEEE Education Medal The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

* 1981: Honorary doctorate, University of Eindhoven

Bibliography

Books

* ''Noise'' (Prentice-Hall electrical engineering series), Aldert Van der Ziel, Publ. Prentice-Hall (1954) * ''Solid State Physical Electronics'' 2nd Ed, Aldert Van der Ziel, Publ. Prentice-Hall (1968) * ''Noise in Measurements'', Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc (1976) * ''Nonlinear Electronic Circuits'', Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publ. John Wiley & Sons Inc (1977) * ''Noise in Solid State Devices and Circuits'', Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publ. Wiley-Interscience (1986) * ''The Natural Sciences and the Christian Message'', Aldert Van der Ziel, Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated (1976) * ''Genesis and Scientific Inquiry'', Aldert Van der Ziel, T. S. Denison & Company, Incorporated (1965) Library of Congress 65-19103

Selected papers

* * : One of the described topics quantum 1/f noise is now controversial.

References

External links

A creationist viewpoint
on van der Ziel's beliefs {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziel, Aldert Van Der 1910 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Dutch physicists Fellows of the IEEE Evangelical Lutheran Church Christians from the Netherlands Lutheran writers People from Eemsmond University of Groningen alumni Van Der Ziel, Aldert 20th-century Lutherans