Martinus J. G. Veltman

Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman (born June 27, 1931 in Waalwijk) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics with his former student Gerardus 't Hooft for their work on particle theory. Martinus J.G. Veltman was born in Waalwijk, Netherlands on June 27, 1931. He started studying mathematics and physics at Utrecht University in 1948. He obtained his PhD in theoretical physics in 1963 and became professor at Ut... more

Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman (born June 27, 1931 in Waalwijk) is a Dutch theoretical physicist. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics with his former student Gerardus 't Hooft for their work on particle theory. Martinus J.G. Veltman was born in Waalwijk, Netherlands on June 27, 1931. He started studying mathematics and physics at Utrecht University in 1948. He obtained his PhD in theoretical physics in 1963 and became professor at Utrecht University in 1966. In 1963/64, during an extended stay at SLAC he designed the computer program Schoonschip for symbolic manipulation of mathematical equations, which is now considered the very first Computer algebra system. In 1971, Gerardus 't Hooft, who was completing his PhD under the supervision of Veltman, renormalized Yang-Mills theory. They showed that if the symmetries of Yang-Mills theory were to be broken according to the method suggested by Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University, then Yang-Mills theory can be renormalized.... less