Gerrit Bol (May 29, 1906 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
– February 21, 1989 in
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
) was a Dutch mathematician who specialized in
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
. He is known for introducing
Bol loop In mathematics and abstract algebra, a Bol loop is an algebraic structure generalizing the notion of group. Bol loops are named for the Dutch mathematician Gerrit Bol who introduced them in .
A loop, ''L'', is said to be a left Bol loop if it sat ...
s in 1937, and
Bol’s conjecture on
sextactic points.
Life
Bol earned his PhD in 1928 at
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
under
Willem van der Woude. In the 1930s, he worked at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
on the geometry of
webs under
Wilhelm Blaschke
Wilhelm Johann Eugen Blaschke (13 September 1885 – 17 March 1962) was an Austrian mathematician working in the fields of differential and integral geometry.
Education and career
Blaschke was the son of mathematician Josef Blaschke, who taught ...
and later
projective differential geometry
In mathematics, projective differential geometry is the study of differential geometry, from the point of view of properties of mathematical objects such as functions, diffeomorphisms, and submanifolds, that are invariant under transformations of ...
. In 1931 he earned a
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
.
In 1933 Bol signed the ''
Loyalty Oath of German Professors to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist State''.
In 1942–1945 during
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 opposin ...
, Bol fought on the Dutch side, and was taken prisoner. On the authority of Blaschke, he was released. After the war, Bol became professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...
, until retirement there in 1971.
Works
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References
*
M. Barner,
F. Flohr, ''Commemorating Gerrit Bol'', Freiburg University leaves 104, 1989, pp. 10f.
*Hala Pflugfelder Orlik: ''Historical notes on loop theory'', Commentationes Mathematicae Universitatis Carolinae 41, 2000, pp. 359–370 (online
cmuc0002.htm
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bol, Gerrit
1906 births
1989 deaths
20th-century Dutch mathematicians
Differential geometers
Dutch expatriates in Germany
Group theorists
Leiden University alumni
Scientists from Amsterdam
University of Freiburg faculty