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Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

  • Albert EinsteinOn the 14th of March 1879, Albert Einstein was born in Ulm within the Kingdom of Württemberg. His parents were Hermann Einstein and Pauline Koch.
  • James ChadwickJames Chadwick was born on the 20th of October 1891 in Cheshire, England. His father John Joseph Chadwick worked as a cotton spinner while his mother Anne…
  • Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809 at his family's home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was the fifth of six children of…
  • Wander Johannes de HaasWander Johannes de Haas was born on the 2nd of March 1878 in Lisse. This small town sits near Leiden in the Netherlands.
  • Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson entered the world on the 13th of April 1743, at Shadwell Plantation in Virginia. His father Peter Jefferson was a planter and surveyor who…
  • Joris BorghoutsJoris Frans Borghouts entered the world on the 17th of June 1939 in Ginneken. His academic path led him to Leiden University where he earned his doctorate in…
  • Claude Louis BertholletClaude Louis Berthollet entered the world on the 9th of December 1748 in Talloires. This small town sat near Annecy within the Duchy of Savoy.
  • Hendrik LorentzHendrik Antoon Lorentz entered the world on the 18th of July 1853 in Arnhem, Netherlands. He was born to Gerrit Frederik Lorentz and Geertruida van Ginkel.
  • John von NeumannBudapest, 1903. A boy named Neumann János Lajos sat at a table in an eighteen-room apartment on the top floor of a building above the Kann-Heller offices.
  • Max PlanckMax Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on the 23rd of April 1858 in Kiel, Holstein. He entered the world into a family where theology and law ruled supreme.
  • Werner HeisenbergWerner Karl Heisenberg was born on the 5th of December 1901 in Würzburg, Germany. His father Kaspar Ernst August Heisenberg taught classical languages and…
  • Hermann OldenbergHermann Oldenberg entered the world on the 31st of October 1854 in Hamburg. This German city became his starting point before he traveled into the deep…
  • Jan GondaJan Gonda entered the world on the 14th of April 1905 in the Dutch city of Gouda. He would later die in Utrecht on the 28th of July 1991.
  • Louis PasteurLouis Pasteur was born on the 27th of December 1822 in Dole, Jura, France. He entered primary school in 1831 and struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia…
  • Carl Friedrich GaussOn the 30th of April 1777, Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was born in Brunswick within the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
  • Bronisław MalinowskiBronisław Kasper Malinowski was born on the 7th of April 1884 in Kraków, then part of the Austrian Partition of Poland. His father Lucjan Malinowski served…
  • Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss was born on the 28th of November 1908 in Brussels. His parents were French Jews who had moved there for his father's work as a portrait…
  • Henri FrankfortHenri Frankfort entered the world on the 24th of February 1897 in Amsterdam. He grew up within a liberal Jewish family that shaped his early worldview.
  • Claude ShannonClaude Elwood Shannon was born on the 30th of April 1916 in a hospital near Petoskey, Michigan. His family lived in the small town of Gaylord where he spent…
  • Henri PoincaréOn the 29th of April 1854, Jules Henri Poincaré was born in the Cité Ducale neighborhood of Nancy. His early years were marked by a severe illness that left…
  • Johan HuizingaJohan Huizinga was born on the 7th of December 1872 in Groningen. His father Dirk worked as a professor of physiology while his mother Jacoba Tonkens died…
  • Peter Brown (historian)Peter Robert Lamont Brown was born on the 26th of July 1935 in Dublin, Ireland. His family background was Scots-Irish Protestant.
  • Michael FaradayOn the 21st of September 1791, a boy named Michael Faraday opened his eyes in Newington Butts, Surrey. His father James worked as a blacksmith before moving…
  • Arthur EvansArthur Evans entered the world on the 8th of July 1851 at Nash Mills in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. His father John Evans ran a paper mill business…
  • Svante ArrheniusSvante August Arrhenius was born on the 19th of February 1859 at Vik near Uppsala in Sweden. His father Svante Gustav worked as a land surveyor for Uppsala…
  • Pierre-Simon LaplacePierre-Simon Laplace was born on the 23rd of March 1749 in Beaumont-en-Auge, a small village four miles west of Pont l'Évêque.
  • Pieter GeylPieter Geyl entered the world on the 15th of December 1887 in Dordrecht. He completed his studies at the University of Leiden by 1913.
  • Niels BohrOn the 7th of October 1885, Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He grew up as the second of three children to Christian Bohr and Ellen…
  • Arthur EddingtonOn the 28th of December 1882, Arthur Stanley Eddington was born in Kendal, Westmorland. His parents were Quakers who valued education and quiet reflection.
  • Ivan PavlovIvan Petrovich Pavlov entered the world on the 26th of September 1849 in the town of Ryazan. He was the first child among ten siblings born to a village…
  • Annemarie SchimmelAnnemarie Schimmel was born on the 7th of April 1922 in Erfurt, Germany. Her father Paul worked as a postal worker while her mother Anna came from a family…
  • Theodor MommsenTheodor Mommsen entered the world on the 30th of November 1817 in Garding, a small town within the Duchy of Schleswig. His father served as a Lutheran…
  • Barthold Georg NiebuhrBarthold Georg Niebuhr was born on the 27th of August 1776 in Copenhagen. His father Carsten Niebuhr worked as a prominent German geographer who resided…
  • Victor DuruyJean Victor Duruy entered the world on the 10th of September 1811 in Paris. His father worked as a factory worker and expected his son to follow that trade.
  • Joel MokyrJoel Mokyr was born in Leiden, Netherlands, on the 26th of July 1946. His family were Dutch Jews who had survived the Holocaust before his birth.
  • Erwin PanofskyErwin Panofsky was born on the 30th of March 1892 in Hanover. His parents, Arnold and Caecilie (Solling) Panofsky, were a rentier mining family from Upper…
  • Peter DebyePeter Joseph William Debye was born on the 24th of March 1884 in Maastricht, Netherlands. He enrolled at Aachen University of Technology in 1901 to study…