Vincent Icke

Professor of theoretical astronomy at Leiden University and professor of cosmology in Amsterdam. Vincent Icke is currently working on three research projects. One is a study of the formation of structure in the universe and aims to explain the weightlessness of space. The second relates to the hydrodynamics of high-energy and relative flows of gas around declining stars and compact objects, such as planetary nebulae and supernovas. The third is a study of the hydrodynamics of cool gases in which dust and radiation play a role, such as young stars.

Icke also publishes articles for non-specialists on a variety of subjects in the NRC Handelsblad and other newspapers and journals. He is a board member of the Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam and a great admirer of the astronomer Marcel Minnaert, author of The Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air. In Dutch Light Icke conducts experiments in the spirit of Marcel Minnaert to analyse the nature of Dutch light and establish whether its coefficient can be calculated.

According to Icke, the Netherlands is covered by a thin layer of cloud, and as a result the light is always reflected through droplets of moisture. Under laboratory conditions he demonstrates the effects of land reclamation in the Zuyder Zee.