Author: Guido Bacciagaluppi

The plaque unveiled on 7 April 2021 | photo: Marieke Wijntjes

The EPS has declared the Sonnenborgh Museum and Observatory in Utrecht an EPS Historic Site. The only places in the Netherlands that had previously received this honour are the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory in Leiden and the NatLab in Eindhoven.

The designation EPS Historic Site is awarded to places that have made an extraordinary contribution to physics. Meteorologist Christophorus Buys Ballot founded the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in 1854 at Sonnenborgh. This is where the first weather reports for the Netherlands were issued, where Buys Ballot formulated his famous law, and where a start was made on international meteorological cooperation. The adjoining institute of astronomy at Sonnenborgh also grew into a scientific place of great importance, particularly due to the solar research of Marcel Minnaert and Kees de Jager in the 20th century. In 1961 de Jager founded the Laboratory for Space Research at Sonnenborgh, which later became the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON).

FLTR: Gerard van der Steenhoven, Guido Bacciagaluppi, Valerio Cugia di Sant'Orsola, Leen Dorsman, Maarten Reichwein, and Petra Rudolf

photo: Marieke Wijntjes

 On Wednesday 7 April 2021, as one of her last duties as President of the EPS, Petra Rudolf unveiled a plaque on the exterior facade of Sonnenborgh “to keep alive the memory of Sonnenborgh's extraordinary contribution to physics”. At the unveiling were present the director of the KNMI Gerard van der Steenhoven, the director of Sonnenborgh Maarten Reichwein, and the chair of the History and Foundations section of the Netherlands' Physical Society (NNV) Guido Bacciagaluppi. The NNV is celebrating 100 years of existence in 2021 and nominated Sonnenborgh as EPS Historic Site. Maarten Reichwein: “Sonnenborgh is very honored to be one of the three Historic Sites in the Netherlands. With this award there is even more appreciation for Sonnenborgh and the researchers who have contributed to science at Sonnenborgh”. Originally part of the fortifications of the city, today Sonnenborgh is a well-preserved historic city observatory as well as a popular museum. On 29 April Kees de Jager also celebrated his 100th birthday, which was marked by a separate ceremony at Sonnenborgh.

More about the EPS Historic Sites programme

• The Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory and the Instituut-Lorentz
• Philips Nat Lab
• EPS Historic Sites
  

Author: NNV

In the afternoon of April 16^th, the NNV organises its annual conference FYSICA 2021. For the second time in row, it is an online conference due to the pandemic. Nobel Prize laureates Reinhard Genzel and Roger Penrose will give key-note lectures. Because of our centennial, it’s our treat and everyone can register free of charge. This means that there is no threshold to attend the meeting: language is English, it is an online event so no travelling and it is free of charge. Interested? Take a look at the website www.fysica.nl. We would love to welcome you.