![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
Nicolaas Bloembergen, center, toasting his Nobel Prize in Physics award in 1981 with his wife, Deli Bloembergen, and Paul Martin, a dean at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.
Associated Press; thumbnail, United Press International, 1981
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Died on September 5, 2017 at age 97
Mr. Bloembergen was a Dutch-born American physicist who studied quantum mechanics by the light of an oil lamp while hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands in World War II. He later shared a Nobel Prize for his contributions to laser spectroscopy.
Notable Deaths 2017
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