Name Hendrikus Lorentz | Education Utrecht University | |
Died September 2, 1944, Klerksdorp, South Africa | ||
Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz (Oudewater, 18 September 1871 – Klerksdorp (South Africa), 2 September 1944) was a Dutch explorer in New Guinea and diplomat in South Africa.
He was born to Theodorus Apolonius Ninus Lorentz and Marie Soet. Lorentz, son of a tobacco grower in East Java who had returned to the Netherlands, studied law and biology at Utrecht University. He married Marie Lousie Clemence barones van Zuylen van Nievelt.
Lorentz participated in three expeditions to Dutch New Guinea, the present-day Indonesian (western) portion of the island of New Guinea. The first was the North New Guinea Expedition in 1903, led by Arthur Wichmann. Lorentz himself led expeditions in 1907 and 1909-1910.
Lorentz National Park and the Lorentz River in southern New Guinea are named after him.
The nonvenomous Lorentz's treesnake Dendrelaphis lorentzii (van Lidth de Jeurde, 1911) is also named in his honour. The holotype was collected at Sabang on the Noord River (later renamed the Lorentz River) during Lorentz's third Papuan expedition.