Balthasar van der Pol

Balthasar van der Pol ( born January 27, 1889 in Utrecht, † 6 October 1959 in Wassenaar ) was a Dutch electrical engineer and physicist, the fundamental work provided to the deterministic chaos.

From 1911 to 1916 Pol studied at Utrecht University mathematics and physics from 1916 to 1917 when John Ambrose Fleming at University College London. He also studied experimental physics at the Nobel laureate Sir Joseph John Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. In 1920 he received his doctorate cum laude in Utrecht. Then he went to the Scientific Research Institute of Philips in Eindhoven, where he remained throughout his career until 1949. He received honorary doctorates in Warsaw and Geneva.

In 1920 he published a work on non-linear vibrations at Triodengitter. In it the still named after him non-linear differential equation is given for the first time. He was the first who suggested the frequency modulation for communication and gave a simple proof of the theorem Heaviside'schen development of operational calculus.

He was not only contemporary but also the friend of famous men such as Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and JJ Thomson. As head of the Philips Research Laboratory for Radio beings he determined largely technical development in this field. Due to the clear expression his treatises are to be regarded as timeless and even today. Nor for the basic studies of high value

See also: Van der Pol system

Works

• Balth. van der Pol & J van der Mark (1928 ): The Heartbeat Considered as a Relaxation oscillation, and to Electrical Model of the Heart. Phil Mag No. Suppl. 6 pp 763-775
• Van der Pol & Bremmer: Operational Calculus. Cambridge 1964
• Selected Scientific Papers: North -Holland Publishing Company 1960; Two volumes