Pieter Hendrik van Cittert was born in 1889 in Gouda, Netherlands, to Benjamin Pieter van Cittert and Petronella Antonia Huber.
In 1912, van Cittert joined the Physics Laboratory at the University of Utrecht. In 1918, he discovered thousands of historical scientific instruments from the eighteenth-century Physics Society in Utrecht. This collection was the starting point for the University Museum, which Hendrik van Cittert founded in 1928.[2] He was promoted in 1919.
In 1921, van Cittert and Leonard Ornstein were among the founders of the Dutch Physical Society[3] (NNV). Hendrik van Cittert was a part-time teacher of physics at HOBS in Utrecht (1916–1950). He founded the Physics Laboratory in Utrecht (1922–1950) and became the first director[4] of the University Museum of Utrecht (1951–1955).
