Person: Koksma, Jurjen Ferdinand
Jurjen Ferdinand Koksma was a Dutch mathematician who worked in analytic number theory.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- In 1930, after submitting his dissertation Over stelsels Diophantische ongelijkheden Ⓣ(On systems of Diophantine inequalities), Koksma was awarded his doctorate with distinction on 4 June.
- Johannes Gerardus Sizoo was appointed as the first professor of physics and Koksma offered the first professorship of mathematics at the Free University.
- In 1933 Koksma published the 40 page paper Diophantische Approximationen von Irrationalzahlen mit Kettenbruchnennern von eingeschränktem Wachstum Ⓣ(Diophantine approximations of irrational numbers with continued fraction denominators of limited growth), then in 1935 he published the paper Ein mengentheoretischer Satz über die Gleichverteilung modulo Eins Ⓣ(A set-theoretic theorem on the uniform distribution modulo one).
- In 1936 Koksma published his most famous work, the book Diophantische Approximationen Ⓣ(Diophantine approximation).
- However there were also good times; during the years 1941-43 Koksma was thesis advisor to Nicolaas de Bruijn who wrote an outstanding dissertation Over modulaire vormen van meer veranderlijken Ⓣ(Modular forms in several variables).
- On 19 September 1945 Koksma spoke at length in his opening address for the session about the war and what had happened during the war years to the people and the buildings of the Free University.
- Johannes van der Corput, who had supervised Koksma's doctoral studies at Groningen, was appointed as a professor at the University of Amsterdam in 1946.
- Koksma, van Dantzig and van der Corput, together with H A Kramers, M G J Minnaert and J A Schouten, founded the Mathematisch Centrum (Mathematical Centre) in Amsterdam on 11 February 1946.
- Koksma, van Dantzig and van der Corput had planned for such a Centre during the war years and they wanted it to be a non-profit making organisation, subsidised by the government and by industry, and independent of the universities.
- We should also note that Koksma, in addition to his work at the Free University and at the Mathematical Centre, also played a major role in the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands, being secretary of the Academy from 1954 to 1961.
- In 1960 Koksma suffered a serious illness and had to cut back on most of his activities due to disability.
Born 21 April 1904, Schoterland, now Heerenveen, The Netherlands. Died 17 December 1964, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Origin Netherlands
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
