Hessel de Vries (November 15, 1916 – December 23, 1959), was a Dutch physicist and professor at the University of Groningen who furthered the detection methods and applications of radiocarbon dating to a variety of sciences.
The 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Willard Libby for his radiocarbon-dating method, however De Vries was not a contender, since the prize is not awarded posthumously and Hessel de Vries died in Groningen in 1959 by suicide after murdering an analyst, Anneke Hoogeveen.
[1] He has been called "the unsung hero of radiocarbon dating" by Eric Willis, the first director of the radiocarbon-dating laboratory at the University of Cambridge.
De Vries became obsessed with his assistant, Anneke Hoogeveen, and left his wife and children in the hope of being with her.
In December 1959 De Vries stabbed her to death with a chisel at her parents' home, then killed himself using cyanide.