J.M.H. "Anneke" Levelt Sengers

Anneke Levelt was born in Amsterdam on March 4, 1929 and passed away at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, MD on February 28, 2024 at the age of 94. She was a stellar physicist, a feminist pioneer, and the caring lynchpin of a far-flung network of friends and family.

Funeral services will be held in St. Agnes Church, 2000 South Duke Street, Shepherdstown, WV on March 11, 2024 at 11am, followed by interment of the ashes in Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date to be announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the UMCP Foundation. To make a donation: Check payable to: “UMCP Foundation”, with in the memo line: “Jan & Anneke Sengers Fellowship”. Mail checks to: UMCP Foundation, Office of Gift Acceptance, 4603 Calvert Road, College Park, MD 20740.

Anneke is survived by her husband of 61 years, Jan V. Sengers; by her daughter Rachel, son Arjan and his wife Lynn, son Maarten and his fiancée Melissa, daughter Phoebe and her husband Thorsten; and by five grandchildren: Christiaan, Alies, Netta, Ana, and Tova.

Anneke was the eldest child of Willem Levelt, who had a Ph.D. in chemistry and Josephina Berger, who had a master’s degree in physics. Having grown up in a large family with a strong scientific interest, she received her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Amsterdam in 1958. After a year as a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin, she went back to the Netherlands. In 1963 she immigrated to the U.S. to take a position as physicist at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), together with her husband Jan. At NBS, now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), she became an internationally recognized scientist in the area of thermodynamics of the critical behavior of fluids and fluid mixtures. She was also active in the thermodynamic properties of water and steam for the power-generating industry. In recognition of both her scientific acumen and her boundless energy, a Russian scientist called her “the most thermodynamic woman of the world.”

Anneke Levelt Sengers received numerous awards and recognitions. She was a member of both the US National Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Sciences. She was a correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Holland Society for Sciences. In 1992 she received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University Delft as the first female honorary doctor in the 150-year history of this university. In 2003 Anneke was the North American recipient of the L’Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science in North America. Among her other honors are NIST and US Department of Commerce Awards, the US Interagency Committee for Women in Science (WISE), and the Yeram Touloukian Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Anneke has been a role model and mentor for many women scientists. As Co-Chair of a panel of the Inter-Academy Council she coauthored a report “Women for Science” for the science and engineering academies of the world. In the final phase of her career, she played a leading role in the activities of the Working Group of the Inter-American Network of Academies of Sciences (IANAS) on Women for Science. As she built a career as a scientist, Anneke was simultaneously redefining what it meant to be a career professional and a mother, a combination which had few role models in the 1960’s and 70’s. She was creative and pragmatic in making things work as a loving and supportive mom to her four children. As oldest daughter of nine siblings, she helped care for her siblings in her youth and maintained loving contact with them and their children through many visits and extensive correspondence over the years. Anneke threw herself into every practical challenge with gusto, whether making her own bread, yogurt, and dandelion wine, repairing the car, making clothing, or renovating the dilapidated 19th century farmhouse that became a beloved second home. There was nothing, it seemed, she couldn’t do.