Martinus J. G. Veltman
| Martinus Veltman | |
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Martinus Veltman in 2005
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| Born | Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman 27 June 1931 Waalwijk, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Netherlands |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Doctoral students | |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in physics (1999) |
Martinus Justinus Godefriedus "Tini" Veltman (Dutch pronunciation: [mɑrˈtinʏs jʏsˈtinʏs ɣoːdəˈfridʏs ˈtini ˈvɛltmɑn]; born 27 June 1931) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics with his former student Gerardus 't Hooft for their work on particle theory.
Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman was born in Waalwijk, Netherlands on 27 June 1931. His father was the head of the local primary school. Three of his father's siblings were primary school teachers. His mother's father was a contractor and also ran a café. He was the fourth child in a family with six children. He started studying mathematics and physics at Utrecht University in 1948.
As a youth he had a great interest in radio electronics, which was a difficult hobby to work on because the occupying German army had confiscated most of the available radio equipment.
In 1955, he became an assistant to Prof. Michels of the Van Der Waals laboratory in Amsterdam. Michels was an experimental physicist, working in high pressure physics. His primary task was the upkeep of a large library collection and occasional lecture preparations for Michels.
His research career advanced when he moved to Utrecht to work under Leon Van Hove in 1955. He finished his master's degree in 1956, after which he was drafted into military service for two years, returning in February 1959. Van Hove then hired him as a PhD student, even though he was now 27 years old. He obtained his PhD in theoretical physics in 1963 and became professor at Utrecht University in 1966.
In 1960, Van Hove became director of the theory division at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, the European High Energy laboratory. Veltman followed him there in 1961. Meanwhile, in 1960, he married his wife Anneke, who gave birth to their daughter Hélène in the Netherlands, before moving to Geneva to live with Martinus. Hélène followed in her father's footsteps and in due time completed her particle physics thesis with Mary Gaillard at Berkeley, though she now works in the financial industry in London.
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