User:Floppert/Bram van Heel

Abraham Cornelis Sebastiaan (Bram) van Heel (Pati (Dutch East Indies), 17 juli 1899 – Delft, 18 mei 1966) was professor of physics (department of Optics ) at the Technical College (Institute) of Delft (Technische Hoogeschool Delft, now Delft University of Technology). He is considered the "father of technical optics in The Netherlands."

He was born in Central Java as the son of Abraham Louis Cornelis van Heel, born in 1867 in Düsseldorf (Prussia) and the directing founder of the oil company 'Insulinde' situated in the Dutch East Indies.

A.C.S. van Heel studied physics in Leiden, where he obtained his degree. In October 1925 he finished his doctoral thesis Het vaste lichaam bij lage temperaturen optisch onderzocht. (Optics of the solid body at low temperatures) with the guidance of his doctoral advisor Wander de Haas. During his studies het stayed in Paris for a year, in the laboratory of Charles Fabry, the co-inventor of the Fabry-Pérot-interferometer. He also followed lectures from Henri Chrétien, known for the Ritchey-Chrétientelescoop.

During his stay in Paris he learned French which contributed to his later international reputation in optics. Van Heel is vooral bekend geworden door zijn gemakkelijk toe te passen rekenmethodes voor het ontwerpen van optische systemen en de toepassing daarvan in concrete ontwerpen. Besides doing research he was also a very good teacher. With his student he developed optical instruments for the observatory of the University of Utrecht. He also took active part in many international fora of his research area. For instance he was a fellow founder of the .International Commission for Optics (ICO) (1948) and the trade journal Optica Acta (1954), the predecessor of the current Journal of Modern Optics.

He stood at the cradle of two companies in Delft, the Optische Industrie „De Oude Delft” (later Oldelft) and Nonius, that makes precision instruments and later merged with Enraf to create Enraf-Nonius

Van Heel was the author of the (then) famous textbook Inleiding in de optica (introduction to optics), that was to be the standard optics textbook for many years for not just student at the University of Delft

From his marriage with Huberta (Zus) Meerburg were born two sons, Abraham Lodewijk Sebastien, married with dr. A.M.C.T. Kasteel, former member of the House of Representatives and prof. Huib van Heel, former professor at the University of Delft

In 1965 he spoke the legendary words: "Het licht komt altijd van links, behalve als het van rechts komt." ( The light always comes from the left, unless it comes from the right) This quote is still displayed at a prominent place at the ImPhys optics research group at the University in Delft.


 * Simons, C.A.J.: A.C.S. van Heel, vader van de Technische Optica in Nederland, in: OD 95 (1999-4) – Delft Integraal
 * The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System: A.C.S. van Heel