Born in Waalwijk (The Netherlands) on June 27, 1931. In 1966 he became Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. In 1981 he moved to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA.

In 1968 he engaged in the study of gauge theories and discovered that they were near renormalizable. In 1971 his then student 't Hooft demonstrated that inclusion of the Higgs mechanism led to complete renormalizability, i.e. mathematical consistency of the theory. Applied to models developed earlier it became obvious that such theories were viable candidates for a realistic theory of weak interactions. Detailed predictions could be worked out, one of them being a prediction for the mass of the top quark. Later, in 1995, the top quark, with a mass as predicted, was discovered experimentally at Fermi National Laboratory near Chicago.

In 1999 't Hooft and Veltman were awarded the Nobel prize.

Abstract:

"Particle accelerators: past, present, future"

A very compressed review of the development of particle physics including the present situation will be given. The question of developemnts in the next 40 years will be raised and analyzed to some extent. Both the likely development as well as the most optimistic devevolpment will be guessed.