Burchard de Volder

Burchard de Volder (1643 to 1709) was a Dutch physicist and natural philosopher, remembered as one of the most important philosophical correspondents of Gottfried Leibniz. Born into a Mennonite family in Amsterdam, he took a master's degree in philosophy at Utrecht under Johannes de Bruin in 1660 and a medical doctorate at Leiden under Franciscus Sylvius in 1664. In 1670 he became professor of physics at Leiden University, and through his efforts a physics laboratory was founded there in 1675. He gathered measuring instruments of every kind and gave demonstrations, especially of the discoveries of Robert Boyle, in a laboratory that was unique for its time. His teaching drew many foreign students, among them Herman Boerhaave.