Martinus Veltman

Martinus Justinus Godefridus Veltman (Tini), John D. MacArthur Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Michigan, who was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize, passed away on January 4, 2021, at the age of eighty-nine. He was born on June 27, 1931, in Waalwijk, Netherlands.

As a youth, he learned electronics and became the local radio repairman; he would have gone to a vocational-technical school, but at the urging of his high school physics teacher, went to the University at Utrecht. His education was interrupted by compulsory military service (1956-58) but by 1961, he had finished most of his doctoral research under Leon Van Hove and spent much of his time at CERN. There he engaged with experimentalists to the extent that in 1963 he became spokesman for the CERN neutrino experiment during a time when the first results were reported at the Brookhaven Conference.

In September of 1966, Veltman returned to Utrecht as the successor to Van Hove as professor of theoretical physics. He began a rigorous program in particle theory that attracted many able students, including Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, Benard de Wit, and his future Nobel co-laureate Gerardus ‘t Hooft. Veltman was straightforward, not necessarily diplomatic, and a wonderfully inspiring speaker and teacher. In addition to those mentioned earlier, he has trained many students and postdoctoral fellows who are now considered leaders in their respective fields.

Veltman’s signature contribution to high energy physics that made him stand apart from other physicists of his time was to make the “gauge theory” idea, credible. This idea is the basis of modern high-energy physics. Throughout the 1960’s and culminating in the 1970’s some outstanding physicists were trying to prove the renormalizability of Yang-Mills gauge theories, and in the process encountered monumental technical difficulties. Gauge theories were not popular in large part due to this problem. The approach, or the point of view that triumphed, was the one developed by Veltman and carried through to its conclusion by him together with his then-graduate student, ‘t Hooft. The proof of renormalizability made it possible to calculate physical quantities in the gauge theory framework. Suddenly, Yang-Mills gauge theories became credible and the calculated quantities agreed well with the experimental data. Many of these calculations were performed by Veltman together with various collaborators in the 1970’s and the 1980’s. To facilitate these and the earlier work on renormalizability, Veltman developed the symbolic manipulation program Schoonschip which was the first such program of its kind.

The major impact of Veltman’s gauge theory program was at first in the theory of weak interactions, and its success led to the possibility of describing other interactions, in particular the strong interactions, by means of a Yang-Mills gauge theory. In addition to these theories, Veltman has made fundamental and seminal contributions to quantum gravity. The first calculations of the quantum corrections to Einstein’s classical theory of gravitation were performed by Veltman and ‘t Hooft.

In 1980, Professor Ed Yao invited Veltman for an extended visit to Michigan, and during that visit, Richard Sands, then the chair of physics, arranged an offer of a professorship there. He joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1981 as professor of physics. A short time later, Veltman obtained the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur endowed professorship. Veltman’s presence at Michigan led to new hires of young theorists, and an increased flux of visitors and graduate students. He brought heightened prominence to Michigan’s program in theoretical physics with an international outreach that included enduring ties with Spanish theorists, principally at the University of Madrid and also at CERN. During this time, Veltman also played a very active role on committees that decided on experiments to be done at Fermilab, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

In the summer of 1991, when Veltman turned 60, the Michigan physics department had organized a conference in his honor. This conference entitled Gauge Theories-Past and Future was attended by leading figures in the field of high energy physics, including two former Nobel Prize winners. This exemplifies the esteem and regard which physicists had for Veltman.

Veltman retired from the University of Michigan in 1996 and made several visits after he had moved back to his home in Bilthoven, Netherlands. In particular, he was here in 1999 after the announcement of the Nobel Prize award, for the celebrations held in his honor by then-president Lee Bollinger. President Bollinger was also invited by Veltman to represent Michigan at the Nobel Prize ceremony held in Stockholm in the Winter of 1999.

Emeritus Professor Martinus J.G. Veltman is survived by his wife Anneke, and his three children: Hélène Veltman, Martijn Veltman, Hugo Veltman, and 3 grandchildren. His daughter, Hélène Veltman, started graduate school in physics at the University of Michigan and completed her graduate studies with a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley.