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
Einstein's Sink Einstein's Sink Einstein's Sink is an antique sink that has been in use by the physics faculty of Leiden University since 1920. Originally the sink stood in the large lecture room of the old Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory. It was taken to the new building when the physicists moved to the Leiden Bioscience park in 1977. Here it still stands in the current large lecture room (The De Sitterzaal of the J.H. Oortgebouw), continuing the tradition of washing the hands of visiting famous scientists. A short list of 'sink users' consists out of Paul Ehrenfest, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz