KEESOM, WILLEM HENDRIK

born June 21, 1876, Texel, Neth. died March 24, 1956, Oegstgeest Dutch physicist who specialized in cryogenics and was the first to solidify helium. Having taken his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in 1904, Keesom worked under Heike Kamerlingh Onnes at the University of Leiden and then in 1917 joined the faculty of the Utrecht veterinary school. Six years later he returned to Leiden as professor of experimental physics. At the Onnes laboratory there in 1926, he successfully solidified helium. In 1932 he achieved the temperature of -457.6 F (-272 C), just two degrees Fahrenheit above absolute zero. His book Helium appeared in 1942.