Eric Karel van Douwen (April 25, 1946 in

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

– July 28, 1987 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 ...

specializing in

set-theoretic topology In mathematics, set-theoretic topology is a subject that combines set theory and general topology. It focuses on topological questions that are independence (mathematical logic), independent of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZFC). Objects studied ...

. He received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1975 from

Vrije Universiteit The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

under the supervision of Maarten Maurice and Johannes Aarts, both of whom were in turn students of

Johannes de Groot Johannes de Groot (May 7, 1914 – September 11, 1972) was a Dutch mathematician, the leading Dutch topologist for more than two decades following World War II.. Biography De Groot was born at Garrelsweer, a village in the municipality of Loppe ...

. He began his academic career studying physics, but became dissatisfied partway through the program. His wife helped inspire his choice to switch to mathematics by asking, "Why not mathematics? It's what you work on all the time anyway". He produced the content of his dissertation unsupervised, and seeking better credentials, he transferred to Vrije to defend, a maneuver permitted by the Dutch university rules.

References

External links

Eric van Douwen's papers
Includes a short bio. From Scott Williams's pages at

SUNY Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

* 1946 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Dutch mathematicians Topologists People from Voorburg Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni {{Europe-mathematician-stub