Abraham Cornelis Sebastiaan "Bram" van Heel (17 July 1899 – 18 May 1966) was a Dutch professor of

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at the then TH (now TU) Delft. He is regarded as the 'father of technical optics in the Netherlands'.

Biography

Van Heel was born in

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

as the son of Abraham Louis Cornelis van Heel, who was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

in 1867 and was the founder and director of the

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factories 'Insulinde' in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. Van Heel studied physics at

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, where he graduated and obtained his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in October 1925 with Wander de Haas for his thesis. At Leiden University he became inspired by Nobel Prize laureates

Hendrik Lorentz Hendrik Antoon Lorentz ( ; ; 18 July 1853 – 4 February 1928) was a Dutch theoretical physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He derive ...

and

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (; 21 September 1853 – 21 February 1926) was a Dutch Experimental physics, experimental physicist. After studying in Groningen and Heidelberg, he became Professor of Experimental Physics at Leiden University, where he tau ...

, the latter eventually becoming his promotor. During his studies he spent a year in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, in the laboratory of

Charles Fabry Marie Paul Auguste Charles Fabry (; 11 June 1867 – 11 December 1945) was a French physicist working on optics. Together with Alfred Pérot he invented the Fabry–Pérot interferometer. He is also one of the co-discoverers of the ozone l ...

, the co-inventor of the Fabry-Pérot interferometer, among other things. He also attended lectures there with

Henri Chrétien Henri Jacques Chrétien (; 1 February 1879, Paris – 6 February 1956, Washington, D.C.) was a French astronomer and an inventor. Born in Paris, France, his most famous inventions are: * the anamorphic widescreen process, using an anamorphic ...

, known, among other things, for the Ritchey-Chrétien telescope. Van Heel owed his good knowledge of French to this stay in Paris, which contributed to his later international fame in the

optical field An electromagnetic field (also EM field) is a physical field, varying in space and time, that represents the electric and magnetic influences generated by and acting upon electric charges. The field at any point in space and time can be regard ...

. Van Heel is best known for his easy-to-apply calculation methods for the design of optical systems and their application in concrete designs. In addition, he was a good teacher. With his students, he designed optical instruments for the

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

. He was also active in various international forums in his field. For example, he was co-founder of the International Commission for Optics (ICO) (1948) and of the trade magazine ''Optica Acta'' (1954), the predecessor of the current ''Journal of Modern Optics''. He was one of the founders of two companies in Delft, namely the Optical Industry ''“De Oude Delft”'' (later ), and ''Nonius'', which made precision instruments and later merged with Enraf into ). He wrote the well-known textbook ''Introduction to optics'', which for many years was the standard textbook in this field at

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

, among others. Two sons were born from his marriage to Huberta (Zus) Meerburg, Abraham Lodewijk Sebastien, married to Dr AMCT Kasteel, former member of the House of Representatives of the States General and Prof. Huib van Heel, former professor at TU Delft. In 1965 he uttered the words: "The light always comes from the left, except when it comes from the right." This quote is still prominently displayed at the ImPhys Optica research group at TU Delft.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:van Heel, Bram 1899 births 1966 deaths Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Leiden University alumni 20th-century Dutch physicists