Hessel de Vries

Hessel de Vries (November 15, 1916 in Annen – December 23, 1959 in Groningen), was a Dutch physicist and professor at the University of Groningen who furthered the detection methods and applications of radiocarbon dating to a variety of sciences. The Nobel prize was awarded for in this field in 1960, however de Vries was not a contender, since the prize is not awarded posthumously and Hessel de Vries died in 1959 by suicide after murdering an analyst, Anneke Hoogeveen.[1] He has been called "the unsung hero of radiocarbon dating" by Eric Willis, the first director of the radiocarbon-dating laboratory at the University of Cambridge.[2] The 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Willard Libby for his radiocarbon-dating method. His other major area of research included studies of human color vision and hearing.[3][4] De Vries became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956.[5]

In this Dutch name, the surname is De Vries, not Vries.

Vision science

In 1943 De Vries discovered a law of scotopic vision that was further investigated by Albert Rose and is known as the De Vries - Rose law. He investigated the effect of temperature on vision by requiring subjects to sit in hot baths.[1]

De Vries effect

In 1958, de Vries showed that baffling anomalies in the carbon-14 dates, observed by Willard Frank Libby for Egyptological samples, were in fact systematic anomalies on a global scale, represented in the carbon-14 dates of tree rings. This phenomenon has been called the "de Vries effect".[6] The correspondence with tree rings, which can be counted (one ring for each year), led to a recalibration of radiocarbon dating that was a large improvement in the accuracy.

Murder and suicide

De Vries became obsessed with his assistant, Anneke Hoogeveen, and left his wife and children in the hope of being with her. In December 1959 De Vries stabbed her to death with a chisel at her parents' home, then killed himself using cyanide.[1][7][8][9]

References
  1. J. J. M. Engels (2002). "Vries, Hessel de (1916-1959)". Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (in Dutch). Vol. 5.
  2. Willis, E. H. (1996), Radiocarbon dating in Cambridge: some personal recollections. A Worm's Eye View of the Early Days, .
  3. De Vries, H. (1956). "Physical aspects of the sense organs". Progress in Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry. 6: 207–264. doi:10.1016/S0096-4174(18)30108-2. ISSN 0096-4174. PMID 13420192.
  4. de Waard, H. (1960-06-10). "Hessel de Vries, Physicist and Biophysicist". Science. 131 (3415): 1720–1721. Bibcode:1960Sci...131.1720D. doi:10.1126/science.131.3415.1720. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17796421.
  5. "Hessel de Vries (1916 - 1959)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  6. Jan Šilar (2004). "Chapter 2. Radiocarbon". In Richard Tykva and Dieter Berg (ed.). Man-Made and Natural Radioactivity in Environmental Pollution and Radiochronology. Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 174. ISBN 1-4020-1860-6.
  7. "Meisje doodgestoken in Groningen" [Girl stabbed to death in Groningen]. Utrechts Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 24 December 1959. p. 1.
  8. "Moord en zelfmoord te Groningen" [Murder and suicide in Groningen]. Nieuwsblad van het Noorden (in Dutch). 24 December 1959. p. 1.
  9. "Vandaag 60 jaar geleden: hoe Hessel de Vries de Nobelprijs misliep door de moord op zijn laborante".
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