Nicolaas Hendrik Kuiper (; 28 June 1920 – 12 December 1994) 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 ...

, known for

Kuiper's test Kuiper's test is used in statistics to test that whether a given distribution, or family of distributions, is contradicted by evidence from a sample of data. It is named after Dutch mathematician Nicolaas Kuiper. Kuiper's test is closely related ...

and proving

Kuiper's theorem In mathematics, Kuiper's theorem (after Nicolaas Kuiper) is a result on the topology of operators on an infinite-dimensional, complex Hilbert space ''H''. It states that the space GL(''H'') of invertible bounded endomorphisms of ''H'' is such ...

. He also contributed to the

Nash embedding theorem The Nash embedding theorems (or imbedding theorems), named after John Forbes Nash Jr., state that every Riemannian manifold can be isometrically embedded into some Euclidean space. Isometric means preserving the length of every path. For instan ...

. Kuiper studied at University of Leiden in 1937-41, and worked as a secondary school teacher of mathematics in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

in 1942-47. He completed 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 ...

differential geometry 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 ...

from the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in 1946 under the supervision of Willem van der Woude. In 1947 he came to the

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 ...

at the invitation of Oscar Veblen, where he stayed at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

for one year as Veblen's assistant, and the second year as member of the IAS, meeting

Shiing-Shen Chern Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geome ...

, and he also went to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

at Ann Arbor. In February to June 1954, he went for a second time to Ann Arbor where he met

Raoul Bott Raoul Bott (September 24, 1923 – December 20, 2005) was a Hungarian-American mathematician known for numerous basic contributions to geometry in its broad sense. He is best known for his Bott periodicity theorem, the Morse–Bott functions whi ...

and his student

Stephen Smale Stephen Smale (born July 15, 1930) is an American mathematician, known for his research in topology, dynamical systems and mathematical economics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 and spent more than three decades on the mathematics facult ...

. In 1950 he was appointed professor of mathematics (and statistics) at the Agricultural University of Wageningen. In 1957, he was notably one of the six participants to the first Arbeitstagung, an informal seminar animated by

Friedrich Hirzebruch Friedrich Ernst Peter Hirzebruch ForMemRS (17 October 1927 – 27 May 2012) was a German mathematician, working in the fields of topology, complex manifolds and algebraic geometry, and a leading figure in his generation. He has been described as ...

, which later became very popular among mathematicians; he saw at this occasion Alexander Grothendieck presenting his first revolutionary works in

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

. In 1960 he visited

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in Evanston for half a year. He became professor of pure mathematics 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 1962. In 1969-70 he made a second visit at the Institute for Advanced Study. At his return from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

, he gave a talk at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

organised in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, during which he was appointed in the executive committee of the

International Mathematical Union The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports ...

for 1971–1975. He finally served as director of the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics. It is located in Bures-sur-Yvette, just ...

from 1971 until his retirement in 1985, then stayed there as a long-term visitor for six years. In 1990, he was appointed chairman of the program committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians held at

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. In 1991, he returned to the Netherlands to live in

Heteren Heteren is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located in the municipality of Overbetuwe, about 12 km southwest of Arnhem on the south bank of the Rhine. Heteren was a separate municipality until 2001, when it became a part o ...

, and continued to participate in mathematical colloquia at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

References

External links

* * * * (in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuiper, Nicolaas 1920 births 1994 deaths Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Leiden University alumni Wageningen University and Research faculty University of Amsterdam faculty Scientists from Rotterdam Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion University of Michigan fellows 20th-century Dutch mathematicians Topologists

See also

References

External links