Peter Wyder


Peter Rudolf Wyder was a Swiss physicist and a professor of experimental solid-state physics at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands from 1967 until 1988 and in 1990. Wyder later served as director of the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses in Grenoble, France.

Life and career

Wyder was born in Burgdorf on 26 February 1934. He obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich in 1965 with a doctoral thesis titled: "Freie Weglängen für die elektrische und die thermische Leitfähigkeit" and thesis advisor Jorgen Lykke Olsen.
He then did research in the USA as a Fellow of the Miller Institute of Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley and as a Research fellow at Harvard University. Starting in 1967 Wyder was a professor of experimental solid-state physics at Radboud University Nijmegen. There he worked with the High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
Wyder was director of the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses in Grenoble, France. The laboratory was founded on the basis of cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Wyder was director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research between 1984 and 2001. He became Honorary Professor at the University of Konstanz and Nijmegen University. Wyder retired as director of the GHMFL in 2001.
Wyder died in Amsterdam on 30 July 2024, at the age of 90.

Honours

Wyder was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985.

PhD students

Wyder's PhD students include:
PhD studentThesisUniversityYear
Hendriks, JanMeasurements on superconducting filmsRadboud University Nijmegen 1976
Koning, Jan-Jaap A far Infrared Fabry-Pérot Interferometer for Multiple Reflection Spectroscopy on Heavy Fermion Metals in High Magnetic FieldsUniversity of Konstanz 1995
Maan, Jan Kees Submillimetre wave spectroscopy of semiconductors in high magnetic fieldsRadboud University Nijmegen1979
Rasing, Theo H. M.Experimental investigation of 4-dimensional superspace crystals: A study of modulated Rb2ZnBr4Radboud University Nijmegen1982
Sparenberg, AnjaLight Propagation in Magnetic FieldsUniversity of Konstanz2001
van der Heijden, Rob W.Far-infrared laser investigations of the high-frequency conductivity of metals under quantum conditions:
Semimetals in high magnetic fields and point contacts
Radboud University Nijmegen1982
van Vlimmeren, Quirinus A. G.Elementary magnetic excitations in ising-like systems:
A study of the excitations in the microwave and far infrared region in RbFeCl3.2H2O
Eindhoven University of Technology 1979

Publications

by Wyder

include:

for Wyder

  • 1995, Walter Joss: Physics and magnetic fields: a festschrift to honour professor Peter Wyder on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Amsterdam : North-Holland, 1995. Series: Physica B, vol. 204, no. 1-4