- 7 September 1993, Eindhoven) was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 scientist, who was responsible for the Hamaker theory

Hamaker theory

After the explanation of van der Waals forces by Fritz London several scientists soon realised that his definition could be extended from the interaction of two molecules with induced dipoles to macro-scale objects by summing all of the forces between the molecules in each of the bodies involved. ...

 which explains the van der Waals forces between objects larger than molecules. His 1937 paper was heavily cited.

He completed his doctorate at the Universiteit Utrecht in 1934. His dissertation was labelled: Reflectivity and Emissivity of Tungsten

Tungsten

Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...

; with a Description of a New Method to Determine the Total Reflectivity of Any Surface in a Simple and Accurate Way. His adviser was Leonard Ornstein

Leonard Ornstein

Leonard Salomon Ornstein was a Dutch physicist. He studied theoretical physics with Hendrik Antoon Lorentz at University of Leiden. He subsequently carried out Ph.D. research under the supervision of Lorentz, concerning an application of the statistical mechanics of Gibbs to molecular problems...

. From 1934 to 1967 he was employed in the Physical Laboratory of Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

 in Eindhoven, and from 1960 to 1972 he was Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology

Eindhoven University of Technology

The ' is a university of technology located in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The motto of the university is: Mens agitat molem . The university was the second of its kind in the Netherlands, only Delft University of Technology existed previously. Until mid-1980 it was known as the...

.

Publications

Hamaker published the following papers:

• H.C. Hamaker (1934). Reflectivity and emissivity of tungsten : with a description of a new method to determine the total reflectivity of any surface in a simple and accurate way. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitg. Mij. x+76 pp. (PhD-thesis University of Utrecht)
• H.C. Hamaker and W.F. Beezhold (1934). Gebrauch einer Selen Sperrschicht Photo Zelle zur Messung sehr schwacher Intensit¨aten. Physica 1, 119-122.
• H.C. Hamaker (1937). The London-Van der Waals attraction between spherical particles. Physica 4(10), 1058–1072.
• H.C. Hamaker (1942). A simple and general extension of the three halves power law. Physica 9(1), 135–138.
• J.E. de Graaf and H.C. Hamaker (1942). The sorption of gases by barium. Physica 9(3), 297–309.
• H.C. Hamaker (1950). Current distribution in triodes neglecting space charge and initial velocities. Applied Scientific Research, Section B, 1(1), 77–104.
• H.C. Hamaker (1962). Applied statistics : an important phase in the development of experimental science (Inaugural lecture). Microelectronics and Reliability, 1(2), 101–109.
• H.C. Hamaker (1962). On multiple regression analyses. Statistica Neerlandica, 16(1), 31–56.
• H.C. Hamaker (1969). Nogmaals de wet en de kansspelen : commentaar op Hemelrijk's beschouwingen. Statistica Neerlandica, 23(3), 203–207.
• H.C. Hamaker (1968). Some applications of statistics in chemical and physical classroom experiments. In European Meeting on Statistics, Econometrics and Manag. Sci. (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 2–7, 1968).
• H.C. Hamaker (1969). De wet en de kansspelen. Statistica Neerlandica, 23(2), 179–191.
• H.C. Hamaker (1970). Over claimfrekwenties, claimbedragen en risicopremies bij de privé-autoverzekering. Het Verzekerings-archief, 47, 154–174.
• H.C. Hamaker (1971). New techniques of statistical teaching. Revue de l'Institut International de Statistique, 39(3), 351–360.

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