Hendrik Anthony Kramers obtained his PhD in Leiden in 1919. In 1934, he became a professor of theoretical physics, a position he held until his passing in 1952. There is hardly a field in chemical physics that does not feature a formula bearing his name, ranging from quantum mechanics and dielectric spectroscopy to chemical reaction rate theory.
My personal favorite is his Physica A from 1940: an article that made me fall in love with statistical mechanics. In 1990, it was honored with a review titled "Reaction Rate Theory: Fifty Years After Kramers."
