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The European Physical Society (EPS) has named Sonnenborgh Observatory as an official EPS Historic Site. The only other locations in the Netherlands to have earned the honour are the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory in Leiden and the NatLab in Eindhoven. Sonnenborgh Observatory is now ranked among such Historic Sites as the Einstein House in Bern, where Albert Einstein developed his Theory of Relativity. Sonnenborgh has been closely affiliated with the scientific research at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ for centuries.

First weather forecast

The EPS awards the title of Historic Site to locations that have made an exceptional contribution to the field of Physics. Sonnenborgh Observatory is where Utrecht Professor Christopher Buys Ballot founded the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in 1854. It is also where the Netherlands’ first weather forecast was drawn up, where Buys Ballot wrote his famous Law, and where international meteorological collaboration got its start.

Astronomy

The adjacent astronomical institute at Sonnenborgh also grew to become an influential place of science in the 20th century, thanks largely to the research by Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ’s solar physicist Marcel Minnaert and astronomer Kees de Jager. In 1961, Kees de Jager founded the Laboratory for Space Research at Sonnenborgh, the predecessor to the current Netherlands Research Institute for Space Research (SRON).

Plaquette

On Wednesday, 7 April, EPS President Petra Rudolf unveiled a plaquette on the facade of Sonnenborgh ‘to preserve the memory of Sonnenborgh’s exceptional contribution to Physics’. The Netherlands' Physical Society (NNV) had passionately advocated for the nomination of Sonnenborgh Observatory and for the eventual unveiling, which was witnessed by Gerard van der Steenhoven (KNMI), Guido Bacciagaluppi (NVV), and Sonnenborgh Director Maarten Reichwein.