PhD Family Tree

Science is built by generations of researchers building on each other’s work, and that is nicely visualized in a PhD family tree. From my perspective, this tree is a personal way to connect my own work to the broader tradition of Leiden physics history and to my family history, and builds in part on Carlo Beenakker’s overview.

Names link to Wikipedia or personal pages; thesis titles link to digital copies of the PhD dissertation.

Early academic lineage (before Kamerlingh Onnes)

flowchart LR KONIG["Samuel Konig 1712-1757 Studied in Basel (no PhD)"] BRUGMANS["Antonius Brugmans 1732-1789 PhD 1749, Franeker De phaenomeno"] ROSSIJN["Johannes Theodorus Rossijn 1744-1817 PhD 1762, Franeker De tonitru et fulmine ex nova electricitatis theoria deducendis"] MOLL["Gerard Moll 1785-1838 PhD 1815, Utrecht Honorary doctorate (honoris causa)"] VANREES["Richard van Rees 1797-1872 PhD 1819, Utrecht De celeritate soni per fluida elastica propagati"] MEES["Rudolf Adriaan Mees 1840-1913 PhD 1867, Utrecht De trillingsrichting in het rechtlijnig gepolariseerde licht"] ONNES["Heike Kamerlingh Onnes 1853-1926, Nobel 1913 PhD 1879, Groningen Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling der aarde"] %% EDGES KONIG --> BRUGMANS BRUGMANS --> ROSSIJN ROSSIJN --> MOLL MOLL --> VANREES VANREES --> MEES MEES --> ONNES %% STYLES classDef normal color:currentColor,stroke:currentColor class KONIG,BRUGMANS,ROSSIJN,MOLL,VANREES,MEES,ONNES normal

--- config: flowchart: curve: linear --- flowchart TD ONNES["**Heike Kamerlingh Onnes** 1853-1926, Nobel 1913 PhD 1879, Groningen *Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling der aarde*"] DEHAAS["**Wander Johannes de Haas** 1878-1960 PhD 1912, Leiden *De Compressibiliteit van Waterstofdamp*"] ZEEMAN["**Pieter Zeeman** 1865-1943, Nobel 1902 PhD 1893, Leiden *Metingen over het verschijnsel van Kerr*"] WESTERDIJK["**Jan Berend Westerdijk** 1917-1982 Dipl.-Ing. 1940, ETH Zurich No PhD; worked as an assistant in Delft and Leiden before being appointed professor."] MOOIJ["**Hans Mooij** b. 1941 PhD 1970, TU Delft *Lattice resonance of alkali halides: Far infra-red measurements at high temperatures*"] OOSTERKAMP["**Tjerk Oosterkamp** b. 1972 PhD 1999, TU Delft *Artificial atoms and molecules: on many-body effects and coherence in semiconductor quantum dots*"] BEENAKKER["**Jan-Willem M. Beenakker** b. 1984 PhD 2012, Leiden *Unravelling the collagen network of the arterial wall*"] GORTER["**Cornelis Jacobus Gorter** 1907-1980 PhD 1932, Leiden *Paramagnetische Eigenschaften von Salzen*"] DEGROOT["**Sybren Ruurds de Groot** 1916-1994 PhD 1945, Amsterdam *L'effet Soret: Diffusion thermique dans les phases condensees*"] JJMBEENAKKER["**Joannes J.M. Beenakker** 1924-1986 PhD 1954, Leiden *De invloed van het Heliumisotoop met massa 3 op de eigenschappen van vloeibaar Helium II*"] BLOEMBERGEN["**Nicolaas Bloembergen** 1920-2017, Nobel 1981 PhD 1948, Leiden *Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation*"] MAZUR["**Peter Mazur** 1922-2015 PhD 1951, Utrecht *Thermodynamique des phenomenes de transport dans l Helium II liquide*"] CWJBEENAKKER["**Carlo W.J. Beenakker** b. 1960 PhD 1984, Leiden *On transport properties of concentrated suspensions*"] %% EDGES ONNES --> DEHAAS ONNES --> ZEEMAN DEHAAS -.->|"mentored"| WESTERDIJK WESTERDIJK --> MOOIJ MOOIJ --> OOSTERKAMP OOSTERKAMP --> BEENAKKER DEHAAS --> GORTER GORTER --> DEGROOT GORTER --> JJMBEENAKKER GORTER --> BLOEMBERGEN DEGROOT --> MAZUR MAZUR --> CWJBEENAKKER %% STYLES classDef nobel color:currentColor classDef normal color:currentColor,stroke:currentColor classDef fam color:currentColor,stroke:currentColor linkStyle default stroke:currentColor class ONNES,ZEEMAN,BLOEMBERGEN nobel class DEHAAS,WESTERDIJK,MOOIJ,OOSTERKAMP,GORTER,DEGROOT,MAZUR normal class BEENAKKER,CWJBEENAKKER,JJMBEENAKKER fam