Cornelis Jan Bakker (11 March 1904 – 23 April 1960) was a Dutchphysicist and second Director General of
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
Imperial College of Science
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
in London, where he continued his research in the area of
spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...
.
In 1933 he worked for the scientific department of Philips in
Eindhoven
Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,wireless technology. In the following his interest in nuclear physics grow and he started during World War II in cooperation with
August Heyn
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...
with the development of a cyclotron for Philips.
After the war Bakker replaced Gorter as a professor of physics and director of the Zeeman Laboratory at the University of Amsterdam in 1946. In addition, he became director of the ''Institute for Nuclear Physics'' of Amsterdam and the company Philips, which, sponsored by the '' Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research '' (NWO), formed the center of nuclear physics research in the Netherlands.
In 1951, Bakker was invited by Professor Pierre Auger (then director of the scientific department of UNESCO) to join a group of eight experts which should make plans about the future
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
. He is considered one of the founders of the CERN. A year later (1952) he became director of a group responsible for the design and construction of the ''
Synchro-Cyclotron (CERN)
The Synchro-Cyclotron, or Synchrocyclotron (SC), built in 1957, was CERN’s first accelerator. It was in circumference and provided beams for CERN's first experiments in particle and nuclear physics. It accelerated particles to energies up to ...
'' (SC). Then he was appointed as director of the Synchro-Cyclotron department. In 1952 Bakker became member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
, three years later he became foreign member.
In 1955, he replaced Felix Bloch as the Director General of the CERN. He was then 5 years in office until he died in 1960 in a plane crash. During his funeral Bakker's work and commitment to CERN and science was repeatedly touted by politicians and researchers, such as John Adams (his successor as director general) or Jo Cals. In addition, he was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion by the former Queen of the Netherlands Juliana.