# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/frits-zernike
# Generated: 2026-09-02T06:20:37.564Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/frits-zernike"
name: "Frits Zernike"
slug: "frits-zernike"
description: "The Dutch physicist who made the invisible visible: his phase-contrast microscope let scientists see living cells without killing them first, earning him the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics."
tagline: "Dutch physicist (1888–1966)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Zernike.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Netherlands"
  isoCode: "NL"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1888-07-16"
deathDate: "1966-03-10"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
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  historical:           22.73413066666667
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  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
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  country:  null
  category: null
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Frederik Zernike was born in the Netherlands on 16 July 1888. He invented the phase-contrast microscope, a technique that transformed biological research by allowing transparent specimens to be observed alive and unstained — what had been invisible under ordinary light suddenly had structure and detail. The work brought him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953. He died on 10 March 1966.