Aldert van der Ziel

Prof. Dr. Aldert van der Ziel, (12 December 1910, Zandeweer – 20 January 1991, Minneapolis), was a Dutch physicist who studied electronic noise processes in materials such as semiconductors and metals.^[1]

Biography

Aldert van der Ziel was a pioneering researcher into the phenomenon of flicker noise in physical electronics. He published 15 books and more than 500 scientific papers. He was also a writer on Christianity, particularly the relationship between science and religion. Van der Ziel belonged to a conservative Lutheran church.

Van der Ziel obtained a Ph.D. in 1934 from the University of Groningen. He worked at Philips in Eindhoven until 1947. In 1947 he went to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and moved to the University of Minnesota in 1950 to become professor of electrical engineering. He was also associated, later, with the University of Florida at Gainesville.

The IEEE has an award named after Aldert van der Ziel, which is given during the two-yearly International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium (ISDRS) sponsored by the IEEE Electron Devices Society, for "a distinguished career in education and research". Past recipients are Lester Eastmann, Herbert Kroemer (Nobel Prize in Physics winner), Michael Shur, Marvin H. White, James D. Plummer, Ben Streetman and Mark Lundstrom.^[2][3][4]

Awards

• 1956 IEEE Fellow
• 1975 Honorary doctorate, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse
• 1977 National Academy of Engineering
• 1980 IEEE Education Medal^[5]
• 1981 Honorary doctorate, University of Eindhoven

Bibliography

Books

• Noise (Prentice-Hall electrical engineering series), Aldert Van der Ziel, Publ. Prentice-Hall (1954)
• Solid State Physical Electronics 2nd Ed, Aldert Van der Ziel, Publ. Prentice-Hall (1968)
• Noise in Measurements, Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc (1976) ISBN 0-471-89895-3
• Nonlinear Electronic Circuits, Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publ. John Wiley & Sons Inc (1977) ISBN 0-471-02227-6
• Noise in Solid State Devices and Circuits, Aldert Van Der Ziel, Publ. Wiley-Interscience (1986) ISBN 0-471-83234-0
• The Natural Sciences and the Christian Message, Aldert Van der Ziel, Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated (1976) ISBN 0-8371-7941-6

Selected papers

• Thermal noise in field effect transistors, A. van der Ziel, Proc. IRE, vol. 50, pp. 1808–1812 (1962).
• Van Der Ziel, A. (1988). "Unified presentation of 1/f noise in electron devices: Fundamental 1/f noise sources". Proceedings of the IEEE. 76 (3): 233–258. doi:10.1109/5.4401. One of the described topics quantum 1/f noise is now controversial.

References

• W.G. Shepherd, C.M. Van Vliet and P.H. Handel in Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 5 p. 276 (1992)

1. Van Vliet, C. M.; Handel, P. H. (November 1991). "Obituary: Aldert van der Ziel". Physics Today. 44 (11): 114. Bibcode:1991PhT....44k.114V. doi:10.1063/1.2810337.
2. "Mark Lundstrom Receives IEEE Aldert van der Ziel Award". Purdue University. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
3. "2001 International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium". University of Maryland. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
4. "2011 International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium (ISDRS)". IEEE. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
5. "IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved November 23, 2010.

External links

• A creationist viewpoint on van der Ziel's beliefs