Heike Kamerlingh Onnes a "Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium" named after him, as well as a plaque and several machines used by Kamerling Onnes in the main hall of the physics department. The Kamerlingh Onnes Award was established in his honour, recognising further advances in low-temperature science. The Onnes effect referring to the creeping of superfluid helium is named in his honor. The crater Kamerlingh Onnes on the Moon is named after him. Onnes is also credited with coining the word "enthalpy". Onnes' discovery of superconductivity was named an IEEE Milestone in 2011. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes FRSFor HFRSE FCS ( ();
History of superconductivity has a boiling point of 4.2 kelvins at atmospheric pressure. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Jacob Clay reinvestigated Dewar's earlier experiments on the reduction of resistance at low temperatures. Onnes began the investigations with platinum and gold, replacing these later with mercury (a more readily refinable material). Onnes's research into the resistivity of solid mercury at cryogenic temperatures was accomplished by using liquid helium as a refrigerant. On April 8, 1911, 16:00 hours Onnes noted "Kwik nagenoeg nul", which translates as "[Resistance of] mercury almost zero." At the temperature of 4.19 K, he observed that the resistivity abruptly disappeared (the measuring