Hessel de Vries, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Hessel de Vries

Dutch physicist

Date of Birth: 15-Nov-1916

Place of Birth: Aa en Hunze, Drenthe, Netherlands

Date of Death: 23-Dec-1959

Profession: physicist, university teacher

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

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 committing suicide after murdering an analyst, Anneke Hoogeveen.
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.
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.De Vries became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1956.