The basic distinction between metals and insulators was proposed by Hans Bethe, Arnold Sommerfeld and Felix Bloch in 1928-1929. It distinguished between conducting metals (with partially filled bands) and nonconducting insulators. However, in 1937 Jan Hendrik de Boer and Evert Verwey reported that many transition-metal oxides (such as NiO) with a partially filled d-band were poor conductors, often insulating. In the same year, the importance of the electron-electron correlation was stated by Rudolf Peierls. Since then, these materials as well as others exhibiting a transition between a metal and an insulator have been extensively studied, e.g. by Sir Nevill Mott, after whom the insulating state is named Mott insulator.