Jan Woltjer (3 August 1891,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
– 28 January 1946,
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
) was a Dutch
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
.
Woltjer was the son of the classical scholar
Jan Woltjer. On 13 December 1916 he married Hillegonda de Vries in
Groningen. He worked and taught at
Leiden University, where
Gerard P. Kuiper
Gerard Peter Kuiper (; ; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper; 7 December 1905 – 23 December 1973) was a Dutch astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. He is the eponymous namesake of the Kuiper belt.
Kuiper is co ...
was one of his students. He was the father of the astronomer
Lodewijk Woltjer
Lodewijk Woltjer (26 April 1930 – 25 August 2019) was an astronomer, and the son of astronomer Jan Woltjer. He studied at the University of Leiden under Jan Oort earning a PhD in astronomy in 1957 with a thesis on the Crab Nebula. This was foll ...
(1930–2019), who was the director general of the
European Southern Observatory from 1975 to 1987.
The crater
Woltjer on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
and the asteroid
1795 Woltjer are both named after him.
References
External links
Website Leiden professors
1891 births
1946 deaths
20th-century Dutch astronomers
Academic staff of Leiden University
Scientists from Amsterdam
{{Europe-astronomer-stub