The Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (English translation: Philips Physics Laboratory) or NatLab was the Dutch section of the Philips research department, which did research for the product divisions of that company.
In 1975, the NatLab employed some 2000 people, including 600 researchers with university degrees. Research done at the NatLab has ranged from product-specific to fundamental research into electronics, physics and chemistry, as well as computing science and information technology.
Originally located in the Strijp district of Eindhoven, the facility moved to Waalre in the early 1960s. A 1972 municipal rezoning meant the area became part of the Eindhoven municipality again, which was followed some years later by Eindhoven renaming the campus' main street into the Prof. Holstlaan, after the first director.[1]
The NatLab facility was disbanded in 2001 and the area has been transformed into the commercial High Tech Campus Eindhoven, which is open to researchers from many different companies. Philips Research is after many reorganizations one of the smaller tenants. Philips Research also had branches in Germany, the United Kingdom, United States, India and China.
History
The history of the NatLab spans roughly three periods: 1914–1946, 1946–1972 and 1972–2001.
The start: 1914-1946
The NatLab was founded in 1914 after a direct decision of Gerard and Anton Philips. At the time Philips was branching out into different areas of electronics and they felt the need to do in-house research to support product development, as well as create a company patent portfolio and reduce the company dependence on patents held by third parties. They hired physicist Gilles Holst (the first director) who assembled a staff consisting of Ekko Oosterhuis and a small number of research assistants; this was the entire scientific staff of the facility for the first decade. Holst held the director's position until 1946 and spent his tenure creating and maintaining an academic atmosphere at the facility in which researchers had intellectual freedom and access to external research and resources. The external access also included colloquia by some of the great physicists of the day (including Albert Einstein in 1923).
This managerial philosophy was unique to NatLab, compared to other Philips facilities and laboratories. Unlike the other Philips labs, NatLab similar to AT&T Bell Laboratories in the United States. The research was also not limited to industrial research; a good deal of fundamental research was also performed at NatLab, such as that of
Academic appointments and personal honors
The Natlab had a great impact on science in The Netherlands. The list of appointments and honors [10] compiled by Henk Hagenbeuk, shows the close cooperation between the Dutch universities and Philips Research until the 1990s. The cooperation worked both ways: researchers were appointed as (part-time) professor at the universities, and vice versa graduates joined the Philips Research. Philips researchers received prestigious awards in technical fields.
Personal honors received
- 1976 US National Academy of Engineering Membership - Hendrik Casimir Leadership in research and development of electron tubes, solid-state devices, glass and metal products
- 2003 US National Academy of Engineering Membership - Kees Schouhamer Immink For pioneering and advancing the era of digital audio, video, and data recording
- 1970 US National Academy of Sciences Membership - Hendrik Casimir
- 1935 IEEE Medal of Honor - Balthasar van der Pol For his fundamental studies and contributions in the field of circuit theory and electromagnetic wave propagation phenomena
Notable alumni
External links
References
- Google Maps, location of the facility^
- G. Holst and B.D.H. Tellegen, "Means for amplifying electrical oscillations", US Patent 1,945,040, January 1934.^
- Marieke Verbiesen. NatLab's History-Back to the Future Baltan Laboratories, retrieved 2016-08-29^