Johannes Diderik van der Waals higher temperatures. Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and helium subsequently succumbed to liquefaction. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was significantly influenced by the pioneer work of van der Waals. In 1908, Onnes became the first to make liquid helium; this led directly to his 1911 discovery of superconductivity. Van der Waals started his career as a school teacher. He became the first physics professor of the University of Amsterdam when in 1877 the old Athenaeum was upgraded to Municipal University. Van der Waals won the 1910 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids. Johannes Diderik
Frans Michel Penning of Gorinchem on 12 September 1894. Penning attended the University of Leiden. He studied mathematics and physics as a graduate student under Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Penning's doctoral work involved measuring thermodynamic properties of various gases at extremely low temperatures. Penning received his PhD on June 25, 1923 with a dissertation entitled 'Metingen over isopyknen van gassen bij lage temperaturen' (Measurements on Isometric Density Lines of Gases at Low Temperatures). His father Louwrens Penning, was a popular novelist in the Dutch literary community; most known for romanticizing the Anglo-Boer War. His mother was Adriana Jenneke Machelina Heijmans. Penning married to Margje