Gerardus 't Hooft
| Gerard 't Hooft | |
|---|---|
November 2008
|
|
| Born |
July 5, 1946 Den Helder, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
| Institutions | Utrecht University |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Doctoral advisor | Martinus J. G. Veltman |
| Doctoral students |
Robbert Dijkgraaf Herman Verlinde |
| Known for | Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Gravity |
| Notable awards |
Heineman Prize (1979) Wolf Prize (1981) Lorentz Medal (1986) Spinoza Prize (1995) Franklin Medal (1995) Nobel Prize in Physics (1999) Lomonosov Gold Medal (2010) |
Gerardus (Gerard) 't Hooft (Dutch: [ˌɣeːrɑrt ət ˈɦoːft]; born July 5, 1946) 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. Veltman "for elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions".
His work concentrates on gauge theory, black holes, quantum gravity and fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics. His contributions to physics include a proof that gauge theories are renormalizable, dimensional regularization, and the holographic principle.
He is married to Albertha Schik (Betteke) and has two daughters, Saskia and Ellen. Saskia has translated one of her father's popular speculative books Planetenbiljart into English. The book's English title is Playing with Planets and was launched in Singapore in November 2008.
Gerard 't Hooft was born in Den Helder on July 5, 1946, but grew up in The Hague, the seat of government of the Netherlands. He was the middle child of a family of three. He comes from a family of scholars. His grandmother was a sister of Nobel prize laureate Frits Zernike, and was married to Pieter Nicolaas van Kampen, who was a well-known professor of zoology at Leiden University. His uncle Nico van Kampen was an (emeritus) professor of theoretical physics at Utrecht University, and while his mother did not opt for a scientific career because of her gender, she did marry a maritime engineer. Following his family's footsteps, he showed interest in science at an early age. When his primary school teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he boldly declared, "a man who knows everything."
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