Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike (hī`kə kä`mərlĭng ôn`əs), 1853–1926, Dutch physicist. He was, from 1882, professor of physics at the Univ. of Leiden. He made important studies of the properties of helium and, in attempting to solidify it, produced a temperature within one degree of absolute zero. In the course of his low temperature experiments, he discovered the property of superconductivity superconductivity, abnormally high electrical conductivity of certain substances. The phenomenon was discovered in 1911 by Kamerlingh Onnes, who found that the resistance of mercury dropped suddenly to zero at a temperature of about 4.2°K;.
..... Click the link for more information. in certain metals. For these researches he received the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike

(born Sept. 21, 1853, Groningen, Neth.—died Feb. 21, 1926, Leiden) Dutch physicist. He taught at the University of Leiden (1882–1923), and in 1884 he founded the Cryogenic Laboratory (now known by his name) that established Leiden as the world's principal research centre for low-temperature physics. He was the first to produce liquid helium (1908), and he discovered superconductivity. He also investigated the equations describing the states of matter and the general thermodynamic properties of fluids over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize for Physics.