Korteweg started his academic studies at the so called "Polytechnic School", now the Technical University of Delft. Because his disposition for mathematics was stronger than that for technical sciences he switched to mathematics, but he kept a great interest in the applications of mathematics in physics and mechanics. He wrote a thesis "On the propagation of waves in elastic tubes" under van der Waals and defended it on July 12, 1878. The University of Amsterdam had just been granted the right to confer doctorates, and so Korteweg became the first doctor of our university. In fact the university existed already since 1632, but only as Atheneum Illustre . Three years later Korteweg was appointed at the University of Amsterdam as professor of mathematics, mechanics and astronomy. In his inaugural address he stressed the importance of mathematical applications in the sciences.
His influence on academic life in the Netherlands becomes apparent also from his membership of several academic institutions; he was a member of the Royal Academy for sixty years and of the Wiskundig Genootschap (Dutch Mathematical Society) for seventy five years. As an editor of the `Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde' during the period from 1897 to 1941 he contributed greatly to the development of mathematics in the Netherlands.
After a fruitful life D.J. Korteweg passed away at age ninety three on the tenth of May 1941.
Bijdrage tot de kennis der lange golven, Acad. proefschrift, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1894, 95 pp, Loosjes, Haarlem.
at the University of Amsterdam, December 1, 1894. Shortly afterwards the main results of the thesis were made public in the famous Korteweg - de Vries paper
On the Change of Form of Long Waves advancing in a Rectangular Canal and on a New Type of Long Stationary Waves; Philosophical Magazine, 5th series, 36, 1895, pp. 422--443
He served as a high school teacher at the ``HBS en Handelsschool'' of Haarlem from 1894 to 1931.
De Vries was married to Johanna Boelen, who taught French language and literature. They had five children. Gustav de Vries died in Haarlem, 16 December 1934.
Although much of this work lies now in the shadows of history, there is one subject that still attracts the attention of hundreds of mathematicians, physicists, chemists and engineers, namely the theory of long stationary waves and the famous Korteweg-de Vries equation. This equation has become the source of important breakthroughs in mechanics and nonlinear analysis and of many developments in algebra, geometry and physics.
In one of his treatises on hydrodynamics Sir Horace Lamb stated that even when friction is neglected, long waves in a canal with rectangular cross section must necessarily change their form as they advance, becoming steeper in front and less steep behind. Because of earlier investigations of Boussinesq, Lord Raleigh and Saint-Venant, the truth of this assertion was not generally accepted, but it seemed to Korteweg that many authors were inclined to believe that a so-called stationary wave without change of form was only stationary to a certain approximation. Whatever the opinion of the mathematical community in those days, Korteweg and his student G. de Vries settled the question of the existence of stationary waves in the latter's doctoral thesis , and a year later in their famous paper `On the Change of Form of Long Waves advancing in a Rectangular Canal, and on a New Type of Long Stationary Waves'. Here the conclusion was drawn that in a frictionless liquid there may indeed exist absolutely stationary waves. In a special case these waves take the form of one or more separated heaps of water propagating with a velocity proportional to their amplitude. The larger ones may overtake the smaller ones and when this happens the waves interchange position without changing their form. They may be compared with colliding marbles exchanging their momentum, reason why Kruskal and Zabusky later called them `solitons'.
Another scientific achievement of Korteweg is his edition of the `Oeuvres Complètes' of the mathematical physicist `avant la lettre' Christiaan Huygens under the auspices of the `Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen'; he was the principal leader of the project during the period 1911-1927. Any scientist interested in the history of his field knows the mental exertion required to understand the way of thinking and reasoning of his predecessors.
The conscientiousness and the courage shown by Korteweg, albeit an applied mathematician, in supervising Brouwer's thesis `Over de Grondslagen van de Wiskunde' (`On the foundations of Mathematics') is remarkable. The thesis was defended in 1907 and the negation of the `principle of the excluded middle' followed in 1908. Ten years later the thunder was roaring between Göttingen and Amsterdam.
Korteweg's teaching duties concerned analytic and projective geometry, mechanics, astronomy and probability theory. He was meticulous in the preparation of his lectures and keenly interested in the progress of his students; a student could have a tough time when he was not applying himself.
Eduard de Jager
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