Van der Waals, Johannes Diderik, << vahn duhr VAHLS, yoh HAH nuhs DEE duh rihk >> (1837-1923), a Dutch theoretical physicist, became famous for his work on the behavior of liquids and gases. He won the 1910 Nobel Prize in physics for developing the famous equation of state which bears his name. The equation takes into account the forces between the molecules of a gas. Van der Waals was born at Leiden. He served as professor of physics at Leiden from 1877 until his retirement in 1907.
