Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1837)

Johannes Diderik van der Waals was a Dutch theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1910 "for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids". Van der Waals started his career as a schoolteacher. He became the first physics professor of the University of Amsterdam when its status was upgraded to Municipal University in 1877.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901, the others being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is traditionally the first award presented in the Nobel Prize ceremony.

March 8 is the 67th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 298 days remain until the end of the year.