Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Dirk Coster

Dirk Coster, Dutch Physicist. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Dirk Coster

Dirk Coster was a Dutch physicist. He was born on October 5, 1889. Coster is known for being the co-discoverer of the chemical element ‘hafnium’ in 1923. It was the second last stable element to be discovered, the last being rhenium in 1925. It is used in filaments and electrodes.

Coster was a Professor of Physics and Meteorology. He taught at the University of Groningen, a public research university in the city of Groningen, Netherlands. He grew up in a family that valued education and all his siblings received enough education to get into middle-class professions.

He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Leiden and obtained his M.Sc. degree in 1916. Coster was an avid physicist, researching X-ray spectroscopy of different elements. Here are the top 10 remarkable facts about Dirk Coster.

1. Coster attended the University of Leiden

The academy building of Leiden university in modern days. Photo by Rudolphous. Wikimedia Commons.

It is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. It is the oldest institution of higher education in the country, having been founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a reward to the city of Leiden for its defense against Spanish attacks during the Eighty Years’ War in the Habsburg Netherlands.

Coster went to study mathematics and physics. He had no ‘gymnasium’ education (equivalent to high school). He had to first pass the exams required for such students, which he did. At Leiden, he was inspired by Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian theoretical physicist, and in 1916, he obtained his M.Sc (Master of Science) degree.

2. He obtained an Engineer’s degree in electrical engineering

After Leiden, Coster worked as an assistant to Wander de Haas, a Dutch physicist, and mathematician at the Delft University of Technology. Wander had studied at the University of Leiden as well. Coster worked at Delft from 1916 to 1920. It was there that he also obtained an Engineer’s degree in electrical engineering.

3. He researched X-ray spectroscopy

X-ray spectroscopy generally refers to the use of x-ray radiation to characterize materials. Coster’s thesis for his Ph.D. degree in 1922 was on this subject. He did his research between 1920 and 1921 at Lund University.

He was under the supervision of Manne Siegbahn. Manne was a Swedish physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924 for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy.

Coster obtained his Ph.D. in Leiden, in 1922 under Paul Ehrenfest. His thesis was entitled ‘X-ray spectra and Bohr’s atom theory.

4. Coster co-authored a landmark publication on X-ray spectroscopy

Niels Bohr, physicist. Photo by AB Lagrelius & Westphal. Wikimedia Commons.

From August 1922, after obtaining his Ph.D., Coster worked in Niels Bohr’s Institute in Copenhagen.  Bohr was a Danish physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory. He founded the institute in 1920.

Coster worked with Bohr on a publication for a few months. It was on X-ray spectroscopy and the periodic system of the elements. It was considered a landmark publication.

5. He was a co-discoverer of hafnium; element 72

Element 72 had been known to be a gap in the sequence of elements since 1914. This is when English physicist Henry Moseley created an experimental technique to arrange elements in a predictable sequence.  Coster worked with chemist George de Hevesy in identifying it.

The two were still working at the Bohr Institute at the time. They identified it in 1923, although its existence had been predicted in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist known for formulating the periodic table of elements. It was the second last stable element to be discovered, the last being rhenium in 1925.

It was named hafnium, after hafnia, the Latin name for Copenhagen where it was discovered.

6. Coster worked at the Teylers Science Museum in Harlem

Teylers Museum. Photo by M. Minderhoud. Wikimedia Commons.

Teylers Museum is an art and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. It was established in 1778 as a contemporary center for art and science. Coster, having returned from Bohr’s Institute in Copenhagen, became an assistant to Hendrik Lorentz at the museum.

Hendrik was a Dutch physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery of the Zeeman effect. It’s the effect of splitting a spectral line into several components in a static magnetic field. While working there, Coster developed an X-ray spectrometer.

7. He succeeded Wander de Haas at the University of Groningen

Wander de Haas. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons.

Wander de Haas was a Dutch physicist and mathematician. The two had worked together at the Delft University of Technology, where Coster obtained his Engineer’s degree in electrical engineering in 1919.

In 1924, Coster was appointed at the University of Groningen as a Professor of Physics and Meteorology. Wander Haas had taught as a Professor of physics at the university. Coster was his successor.

Coster began an active research program in X-ray spectroscopy at the University of Groningen, a field of science had always been fascinated with.

8. Coster was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Trippenhuis. Photo by Amsterdam Municipal Department for the Preservation and Restoration of Historic Buildings and Sites (bMA). Wikimedia Commons.

This is an organization centered on the advancement of science and art in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis, a neoclassical mansion in Amsterdam. It has been the seat of the academy since 1887.

The acceptance criterion for nominated persons is delivered scientific achievements. Membership is therefore prestigious. Coster became a member of the academy in 1934.

9. He helped Jews hide from the Nazis during the German Occupation

During World War II, the Germans occupied the Netherlands, after winning the Battle of the Netherlands in 1940. One of the horrific events that followed was the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands by the Nazis.

Dutch Jews would be deported to mass concentration camps and exterminated.  The Jews were forced to wear Star of David Badges, a badge that marked them as both religious and ethnic outsiders. Scores were killed during this unfortunate time in history.

Coster, who was living in the Netherlands, helped those he could hide from the Nazis. He kept himself informed by listening to the BBC daily on his bicycle-powered radio.

10. He traveled to Berlin in 1938 to help a friend escape the holocaust

Lise Meitner. Photo by United States Information Agency. Wikimedia Commons.

Coster was politically involved. In 1938, he went to Berlin to convince Lise Meitner, an Austrian-Swedish physicist to flee Germany and escape the persecution of the Jews. Lise had a Jewish heritage.

Coster accompanied Lise by train to Groningen. At the border, he persuaded German immigration officers that Lise had a permit to travel to the Netherlands. From there she traveled to Sweden through Copenhagen.