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Newspaper clipping Education. Prof. dr. Dr J. G. van der Corput, 1922 photo sourced from

Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Johannes van der Corput

A mathematician is someone who solves mathematical issues using a comprehensive understanding of mathematics. Numbers, data, amount, structure, space, models, and change are all of interest to mathematicians.

When Pythagoras of Samos (c. 582-c. 507 BC) founded the Pythagorean School, whose theory was that mathematics dominated the universe and whose motto was “All is number,” the number of recognized mathematicians expanded.

The Pythagoreans originated the term “mathematics,” and it is with them that the study of mathematics for its own sake began.

One such renowned mathematician and scholar is Johannes van der Corput.

For the proper understanding of some of the most delicate workings of Dutch politics in this particular case, one should know a bit more about the major actor namely Johannes Gaultherus van der Corput, a mathematician of good standing.

He had a fine reputation in number theory and his publications have appeared in leading journals. Johannes Gaultherus van der Corput was born on 4 September 1890 in Rotterdam, Holland. Here are the top 10 outstanding facts about him. 

1.  Johannes helped educate his siblings

Photo by Juliane Liebermann on

Johannes Gualtherus van der Corput was born in Rotterdam, where his father, Gualtherus Johannes, ran a colonial-themed store. Jan’s mother, Anna Maria Blomjous, took life more seriously than his father.

The family consisted of four sons and one daughter. Jan’s mother had to keep an eye on finances after his father died in middle age. Johannes Gualtherus van der Corput while not being the eldest, assisted in the education of the younger siblings.

Johannes de Corput’s intimates used the moniker Jan to refer to him during their heydays.

2. He studied mathematics at the recommendation of his secondary school teacher

View of the Coolsingel and Coolvest from left to right. the Erasmiaans Gymnasium, the M. C. van Dooren’s Women’s Institute of Benevolence and the Passage shopping gallery. Year: 1914 photo by Fototechnische Dienst Rotterdam –

Jan attended the Erasmiaans gymnasium after finishing primary school. This famous Gymnasium, the second oldest in the Netherlands, was founded in 1328.

At the time that van der Corput studied there, it was situated at the corner of the Coolsingel and the Laurensstraat. He graduated from this school in 1908. He excelled at both Rotterdam schools.

His family wanted him to study medicine, but he was interested in history and the Dutch language. Finally, his secondary school instructor, R.H recommended to him that he should study mathematics, pure mathematics to be precise according to to van Dorsten.

3. Johannes was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

He became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1929, and a foreign member in 1953.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands.

4. Van der Corput studied at University of Leiden

The Leiden University Medical Center at the Albinusdreef in Leiden. photo by Steven Lek –

Van der Corput enrolled at the University of Leiden, where Jan Cornelis Kluyver, a professor with interests in analysis, differential geometry, and number theory, was teaching.

Kluyver, who began his research in geometry, switched to analysis after being appointed Professor of Mathematical Analysis at Leiden in 1892, and in a relatively short time pushed analysis education to a level not previously achieved in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is now accustomed to the analysis being presented according to very strict norms, yet before Kluyver’s time, analysis in the Netherlands was virtually at the 18th-century level.

Despite the improvement in the level of analysis teaching that Kluyver was making at Leiden, van der Corput did, later in his life, sometimes make critical comments about the level of Kluyver’s courses and research.

5. He was appointed professor at the University of Fribourg

University of Fribourg Central Library photo by ObrienC –

Van der Corput began working as an assistant to Arnaud Denjoy at the University of Utrecht in 1920. Denjoy was a French mathematician who studied and worked in France until 1917 when he was transferred to the University of Utrecht.

He would only stay in Utrecht until 1922 when he would return to his position as a professor at the University of Â鶹APP.

Van der Corput was Denjoy’s assistant for the remaining two years of his time at Utrecht before being appointed professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland in 1922.

Van der Corput only stayed at the University of Fribourg for a year before accepting a position as a professor at the University of Groningen in 1923.

He was appointed professor at the University of Amsterdam in 1946. He was one of the founders of the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam, of which he also was the first director.

From 1953 on he worked in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

6. Johannes worked in the field of analytic number theory

Dutch mathematician Johannes Gaultherus van der Corput worked in the field of analytic number theory. Analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that employs methods from mathematical analysis to address issues involving integers.

It is commonly assumed that it began with Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet’s 1837 invention of Dirichlet L-functions to prove Dirichlet’s theorem on arithmetic progressions.

It is well recognized for its prime number results (including the Prime Number Theorem and the Riemann zeta function) and additive number theory (including the Goldbach conjecture and Waring’s dilemma).

7. He introduced the van der Corput lemma

He introduced the van der Corput lemma, a method for calculating the upper bound on the measure of a set using harmonic analysis, as well as the van der Corput theorem on equidistribution modulo 1

8. Johannes was appointed chairperson of the Committee for Mathematics Coordination 

During the war, a handful of Groningen professors organized a small group to examine how universities should be independent of authoritarian dangers in the postwar period.

Van der Corput was a member of this group, as was Gerardus J van der Leeuw, a history and theology professor at the University of Groningen. Van der Leeuw was named Minister of Education for the Netherlands after the war ended in 1945.

He appointed van der Corput to be the chair of the Committee for the Coordination and Reorganization of Higher Education in Mathematics in The Netherlands.

9. Johannes de Corput made a beautiful city plan for Duisburg

Nightly view of Duisburg Inner Harbour at blue hour photo by Tuxyso –

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were notable Van der Corputs, and there were various indicators of mathematical talent. He made a beautiful city plan of Duisburg (while he later helped defend Steenwijk against the Spaniards).

The mother of the statesmen Johannes and Cornelis de Witt was Anna Maria van der Corput (who were also known for their mathematics).

Van der Corput’s mother was a mathematician, while his oldest brother studied at Delft and became a secondary-school math teacher.

10. He delivered the Rouse Ball Lecture at the University of Cambridge

View of the University of Cambridge library from the tower of Great St Mary’s Church. Roof of the University of Cambridge sports centre seen in the distance, right. photo by Marvinthefish –

In 1948, Van der Corput gave the Rouse Ball Lecture at the University of Cambridge.

From 1950 to 1952, he was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, and when he returned to Amsterdam, he was dissatisfied that the environment was not as favourable to study as it had been in the United States.

This led him to leave Amsterdam in 1954 and accept a permanent position at the University of California at Berkeley.