Dirk Polder

Dirk Polder (23 August 1919 – 18 March 2001) was a Dutch physicist working on solid-state physics, magnetism, molecular physics and nanoscale physics.

Together with Hendrik Casimir, Polder first predicted the existence of what today is known as the Casimir-Polder force, sometimes also referred to as the Casimir effect or Casimir force. Using a similar theory, he developed the formalism to treat radiative heat transfer at the nanoscale.

Biography

Early life Dirk Polder was born in 1919 in The Hague, Netherlands. His father was a Delft engineer and his mother was the daughter of a minister. Music was very important for his family and Dirk played the cello and played frequently in quartets.

After completing his HBS (Hogere Burgerschool) in mathematics and physics, he enrolled at Leiden University in 1936 where obtained a Bachelor of Science in physics and chemistry in 1939.

In 1979 Polder worked on theory of ferromagnetic resonance. He generalized the phenomenological description given by Charles Kittel for a homogeneously magnetized ellipsoid by deriving the tensorial relationship. The tensor in question is now known as the 'Polder tensor' and provides a basis for the phenomenological description of all kinds of periodic phenomena in ferromagnetic media, such as the propagation of electromagnetic waves, which Polder has treated himself.