Gilles Holst

Gilles Holst (20 March 1886 – 11 October 1968)[1] was a Dutch physicist, known worldwide for his invention of the low-pressure sodium lamp in 1932.

In 1904 he went to ETH Zurich to study mechanical engineering, switching to mathematics and physics after a year.

And most important, he became the science director of the Philips Physics Laboratory in Eindhoven.

In 1909 he became an assistant to Heike Kamerlingh Onnes at Leiden University.

In 1926 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.