Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes FRSFor HFRSE FCS ( (); 21 September 1853 – 21 February 1926) was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He exploited the Hampson–Linde cycle to investigate how materials behave when cooled to nearly absolute zero and later to liquefy helium for the first time, in 1908. He was also the discoverer of superconductivity in 1911. Kamerlingh Onnes was born in Groningen, Netherlands. His father, Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, was a brickworks owner. His mother was Anna Gerdina Coers of Arnhem. In 1870, Kamerlingh Onnes attended the University of Groningen. He studied under Robert Bunsen
Lowest temperature recorded on Earth 1960, held the record until a temperature of was measured at the Soviet Vostok Station, on the Antarctic Plateau, on July 21, 1983. This remains the record for a directly recorded temperature. In 1904 Dutch scientist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes created a special lab in Leiden with the aim of producing liquid helium. In 1908 he managed to lower the temperature to less than −269 °C (-452.2 F, 4 K), which is less than four degrees above absolute zero. Only in this exceptionally cold state will helium liquefy, the boiling point of helium being at −268.94 °C (-452.092 F). Kamerlingh Onnes