Willem de Sitter

Jan Guichelaar (1945) is a theoretical physicist. He studied mathematics, astronomy and theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam and received his PhD in 1974 with a thesis on acoustics in relativistic kinetic Boltzmann theory. After a career in secondary education, politics, university education and educational management he has been active as a historian of science in the field of astronomy and physics.

Astronomy in Leiden.- Descent.- Youth and Education.- The Making of an Astronomer.- The Galilean Moons of Jupiter.-  The Road to Professor in Leiden.- Leiden Activities.- Fundamental Work and a new Theory for Jupiter's Satellites.- Gravity, General Theory of Relativity and Cosmology.-  Director of  the Observatory and Stay in Arosa.- At the Top.- International Business.- Last years.- Abbreviations.

"This is certainly the best work we have on de Sitter-and perhaps on Dutch astronomy in general. ... Scholars interested in astronomy in the first half of the twentieth century certainly need to read this book, as should those interested in scientific internationalism between the world wars." (Matthew Stanley, Isis, Vol. 111 (1), 2020)
"The book under review covers a very large area of subjects. It can be classified as a historical-scientific work, as well as a bibliographic one, equally as a book concerned to celestial mechanics or to cosmology. ... The reader of the book can be happy to find here also a lot about the greatest scientists from the beginnning of the 20-th century ... ." (Alex B. Gaina, zbMATH 1408.83004, 2019)