Frits Zernike
Encyclopedia
Frits Zernike (ˈzɝːr.nɪ.kiː; July 16, 1888 –; March 10, 1966) was a Dutch
physicist
and winner of the Nobel prize
for physics
in 1953 for his invention of the phase contrast microscope, an instrument that permits the study of internal cell
structure without the need to stain
and thus kill the cells.
, Netherlands
to Carl Frederick August Zernike and Antje Dieperink. Both parents were teachers of mathematics
, and he especially shared his father's passion for physics. He studied chemistry
(his major), mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1912 he was awarded a prize for his work on opalescence
in gases. In 1913 he became assistant to Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn at the astronomical laboratory of Groningen University. In 1914, he was responsible jointly with Leonard Salomon Ornstein for the derivation of the Ornstein-Zernike equation in critical-point theory. In 1915, he obtained a position in theoretical physics
at the same university and in 1920 he was promoted to full professor of theoretical physics.
s and discovered that the so-called ghost lines that occur to the left and right of each primary line in spectra
created by means of a diffraction grating
, have their phase shifted from that of the primary line by 90 degrees. It was at a Physical and Medical Congress in Wageningen in 1933 that Zernike first described his phase contrast technique in microscopy. He extended his method to test the figure of concave mirrors. His discovery lay at the base of the first phase contrast microscope, built during World War II
.
Another contribution in the field of optics is related to the efficient description of the imaging defects or aberrations of optical imaging systems
like microscope
s and telescope
s. The representation of aberrations
was originally based on the theory developed by Ludwig Seidel
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Seidel's
representation was based on power series expansions and did not allow a clear separation between various types and orders of aberrations
. Zernike's orthogonal circle polynomials
provided a solution to the long-standing problem of the optimum 'balancing' of the various aberrations
of an optical instrument. Since the 1960s, Zernike's circle polynomials
are widely used in optical design, optical metrology
and image analysis
.
Zernike's work helped awaken interest in coherence theory
, the study of partially coherent light sources. He died in hospital at Amersfoort
, Netherlands
in 1966 after suffering illness the last years of his life.
of six.
The university complex to the north of the city of Groningen is named after him (Zernike park), as is the crater Zernike
on the Moon
.
Zernike's great-nephew Gerardus 't Hooft
won the Nobel Prize
in physics
in 1999.
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...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and winner of the Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1953 for his invention of the phase contrast microscope, an instrument that permits the study of internal cell
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
structure without the need to stain
Staining (biology)
Staining is an auxiliary technique used in microscopy to enhance contrast in the microscopic image. Stains and dyes are frequently used in biology and medicine to highlight structures in biological tissues for viewing, often with the aid of different microscopes...
and thus kill the cells.
Biography
Zernike was born in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Netherlands
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...
to Carl Frederick August Zernike and Antje Dieperink. Both parents were teachers of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and he especially shared his father's passion for physics. He studied chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
(his major), mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1912 he was awarded a prize for his work on opalescence
Opalescence
Opalescence is a type of dichroism seen in highly dispersed systems with little opacity. The material appears yellowish-red in transmitted light and blue in the scattered light perpendicular to the transmitted light. The phenomenon is named after the appearance of opals.There are different degrees...
in gases. In 1913 he became assistant to Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn at the astronomical laboratory of Groningen University. In 1914, he was responsible jointly with Leonard Salomon Ornstein for the derivation of the Ornstein-Zernike equation in critical-point theory. In 1915, he obtained a position in theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
at the same university and in 1920 he was promoted to full professor of theoretical physics.
Research in physical optics
In 1930, Zernike was conducting research into spectral lineSpectral line
A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from a deficiency or excess of photons in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies.- Types of line spectra :...
s and discovered that the so-called ghost lines that occur to the left and right of each primary line in spectra
Electromagnetic spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object....
created by means of a diffraction grating
Diffraction grating
In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure, which splits and diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as...
, have their phase shifted from that of the primary line by 90 degrees. It was at a Physical and Medical Congress in Wageningen in 1933 that Zernike first described his phase contrast technique in microscopy. He extended his method to test the figure of concave mirrors. His discovery lay at the base of the first phase contrast microscope, built during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Another contribution in the field of optics is related to the efficient description of the imaging defects or aberrations of optical imaging systems
Aberration in optical systems
Aberrations are departures of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. Aberration leads to blurring of the image produced by an image-forming optical system. It occurs when light from one point of an object after transmission through the system does not converge...
like microscope
Microscope
A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...
s and telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
s. The representation of aberrations
Aberration in optical systems
Aberrations are departures of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. Aberration leads to blurring of the image produced by an image-forming optical system. It occurs when light from one point of an object after transmission through the system does not converge...
was originally based on the theory developed by Ludwig Seidel
Philipp Ludwig von Seidel
Philipp Ludwig von Seidel was a German mathematician. His mother was Julie Reinhold and his father was Justus Christian Felix Seidel.Lakatos credits von Seidel with discovering, in 1847, the crucial analytic concept of uniform convergence, while analyzing an incorrect proof of Cauchy's.In 1857,...
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Seidel's
Philipp Ludwig von Seidel
Philipp Ludwig von Seidel was a German mathematician. His mother was Julie Reinhold and his father was Justus Christian Felix Seidel.Lakatos credits von Seidel with discovering, in 1847, the crucial analytic concept of uniform convergence, while analyzing an incorrect proof of Cauchy's.In 1857,...
representation was based on power series expansions and did not allow a clear separation between various types and orders of aberrations
Aberration in optical systems
Aberrations are departures of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. Aberration leads to blurring of the image produced by an image-forming optical system. It occurs when light from one point of an object after transmission through the system does not converge...
. Zernike's orthogonal circle polynomials
Zernike polynomials
In mathematics, the Zernike polynomials are a sequence of polynomials that are orthogonal on the unit disk. Named after Frits Zernike, they play an important role in beam optics.-Definitions:There are even and odd Zernike polynomials...
provided a solution to the long-standing problem of the optimum 'balancing' of the various aberrations
Aberration in optical systems
Aberrations are departures of the performance of an optical system from the predictions of paraxial optics. Aberration leads to blurring of the image produced by an image-forming optical system. It occurs when light from one point of an object after transmission through the system does not converge...
of an optical instrument. Since the 1960s, Zernike's circle polynomials
Zernike polynomials
In mathematics, the Zernike polynomials are a sequence of polynomials that are orthogonal on the unit disk. Named after Frits Zernike, they play an important role in beam optics.-Definitions:There are even and odd Zernike polynomials...
are widely used in optical design, optical metrology
Metrology
Metrology is the science of measurement. Metrology includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement. The word comes from Greek μέτρον , "measure" + "λόγος" , amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason"...
and image analysis
Image analysis
Image analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques...
.
Zernike's work helped awaken interest in coherence theory
Coherence theory
In physics, coherence theory is the study of optical effects arising from partially coherent light and radio sources. Partially coherent sources are sources where the coherence time or coherence length are limited by bandwidth, by thermal noise, or by other effect...
, the study of partially coherent light sources. He died in hospital at Amersfoort
Amersfoort
Amersfoort is a municipality and the second largest city of the province of Utrecht in central Netherlands. The city is growing quickly but has a well-preserved and protected medieval centre. Amersfoort is one of the largest railway junctions in the country, because of its location on two of the...
, Netherlands
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...
in 1966 after suffering illness the last years of his life.
Honours and awards
Zernike has an Erdős numberErdos number
The Erdős number describes the "collaborative distance" between a person and mathematician Paul Erdős, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers.The same principle has been proposed for other eminent persons in other fields.- Overview :...
of six.
The university complex to the north of the city of Groningen is named after him (Zernike park), as is the crater Zernike
Zernike (crater)
Zernike is a lunar crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the northwest of the larger crater Anderson. Like many craters on the far side, this formation has been battered by impacts, and as a result it is worn and eroded, especially in the southern half...
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
.
Zernike's great-nephew Gerardus 't Hooft
Gerardus 't Hooft
Gerardus 't Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Martinus J. G...
won the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1999.
See also
- Leonard Salomon Ornstein
- Coherence theoryCoherence theoryIn physics, coherence theory is the study of optical effects arising from partially coherent light and radio sources. Partially coherent sources are sources where the coherence time or coherence length are limited by bandwidth, by thermal noise, or by other effect...
- Physical opticsPhysical opticsIn physics, physical optics, or wave optics, is the branch of optics which studies interference, diffraction, polarization, and other phenomena for which the ray approximation of geometric optics is not valid...
- Phase contrast microscope
- Zernike polynomialsZernike polynomialsIn mathematics, the Zernike polynomials are a sequence of polynomials that are orthogonal on the unit disk. Named after Frits Zernike, they play an important role in beam optics.-Definitions:There are even and odd Zernike polynomials...
- Oz Enterprise (a Linux distributionLinux distributionA Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
named after Leonard Salomon Ornstein and Frederik Zernike).
External links
- Frits Zernike Photo
- Frits Zernike Biography
- "How I discovered phase contrast" Nobel Prize speech
- Extended Nijboer-Zernike theory
- Museum Boerhaave Negen Nederlandse Nobelprijswinnaars
- H. Brinkman, Zernike, Frits (1888-1966), in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland.
- Prominente Groningse hoogleraren Frits Zernike (1888-1966)
- Frits Zernike (1888-1966) biography at the National library of the Netherlands.
- The Ornstein-Zernike equation and integral equations
- Multilevel wavelet solver for the Ornstein-Zernike equation Abstract
- Analytical solution of the Ornstein-Zernike equation for a multicomponent fluid
- The Ornstein-Zernike equation in the canonical ensemble