David van Dantzig (September 23, 1900 – July 22, 1959) was a Dutch

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, well known for the construction in

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

of the dyadic solenoid. He was a member of the Significs Group.

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Amsterdam in 1900, Van Dantzig started to study Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam in 1917, where Gerrit Mannoury lectured. He received his PhD at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

in 1931 with a thesis entitled "" under supervision of

Bartel Leendert van der Waerden Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (; 2 February 1903 – 12 January 1996) was a Dutch mathematician and historian of mathematics. Biography Education and early career Van der Waerden learned advanced mathematics at the University of Amster ...

.David van Dantzig
at Mathematics Genealogy Project. He was appointed professor at the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

in 1938, and at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

in 1946. Among his doctoral students were Jan Hemelrijk (1950), Johan Kemperman (1950), David Johannes Stoker (1955), and Constance van Eeden (1958). In Amsterdam he was one of the founders of the

Mathematisch Centrum The (abbr. CWI; English: "National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science") is a research centre in the field of mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research Cou ...

. At the University of Amsterdam he was succeeded by Jan Hemelrijk. Originally working on topics in

differential geometry and topology Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multili ...

, after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he focused on

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speakin ...

, emphasizing the applicability to statistical hypothesis testing. In 1949 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In response to the North Sea flood of 1953, the

Dutch Government The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy, and a decentralised unitary state.''Civil service systems in Western Europe'' edited by A. J. G. M. Bekk ...

established the Delta Committee, and asked Van Dantzig to develop a mathematical approach to formulate and solve the economic cost-benefit decision model concerning optimal dike height problems in connection with the

Delta Works The Delta Works ( nl, Deltawerken) is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works con ...

. The work of the Delta Committee, including the work by Van Dantzig, finally resulted in statutory minimal safety standards.

Publications

Books, a selection: * 1931. ''Studien over topologische algebra''. Doctoral thesis University of Groningen. * 1932. ''Over de elementen van het wiskundig denken : voordracht''. Rede Delft. Groningen : Noordhoff. * 1938. ''Vragen en schijnvragen over ruimte en tijd : een toepassing van den wiskundigen denkvorm''. Inaugurale rede Technische Hogeschool te Delft * 1948. ''De functie der wetenschap : drie voordrachten, met discussie''. With

E.W. Beth Evert Willem Beth (7 July 1908 – 12 April 1964) was a Dutch philosopher and logician, whose work principally concerned the foundations of mathematics. He was a member of the Significs Group. Biography Beth was born in Almelo, a small tow ...

and C.F.P. Stutterheim. 's-Gravenhage : Leopold Articles, a selection: * D. van Dantzig, C. Scheffer "On hereditary time discrete stochastic processes, considered as stationary Markov chains, and the corresponding general form of Wald’s fundamental identity," Indag. Math. (16), No.4, (1954), p. 377–388 * Dantzig, D. van. 1956. Economic decision problems for flood prevention.

Econometrica ''Econometrica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles in many areas of economics, especially econometrics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Econometric Society. The current editor-in-chief is ...

24(3) 276–287.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dantzig, David van 1900 births 1959 deaths Dutch Jews Dutch statisticians 20th-century Dutch mathematicians University of Groningen alumni Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Fellows of the American Statistical Association Scientists from Amsterdam Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences