Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853 – 1928)

Dutch theoretical physicist, professor at Leiden. He investigated the relationship between electricity, magnetism, and mechanics. In order to explain the observed effect of magnetic fields on emitters of light (Zeeman effect), he postulated the existence of electric charges in the atom, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1902. He derived a set of transformation equations (known after him, as Lorentz transformation equations) by some tangled mathematical arguments, but he was not aware that these equations hinge on a new concept of space and time.