Johannes Diderik van der Waals (; 23 November 1837 – 8 March 1923) was a Dutch theoretical physicist and thermodynamicist. He became famous for his pioneering work on the equation of state for gases and liquids. Van der Waals started his career as a school teacher. In 1877, he became the first physics professor of the University of Amsterdam. Van der Waals won the 1910 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids.