 Van Nieuwenhuizen is best known for his discovery of supergravity with Sergio Ferrara and Daniel Z. Freedman.Peter van Nieuwenhuizen studied physics and mathematics at the University of Utrecht, where he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of later Nobel laureate Martinus Veltman.After his studies in Utrecht he went to CERN (Geneva), the University of Paris in Orsay, and Brandeis University (Waltham), each for two years.