Koninklijk Wiskundig Genootschap

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The Koninklijk Wiskundig Genootschap (KWG, before 2003 simply Wiskundig Genootschap ) is the Dutch Mathematical Society. The word Wiskunde (literally science) denotes mathematics in Dutch since the creation of mathematical technical terms in Dutch by Simon Stevin in the 17th century. The Wiskundig Genootschap is the oldest professional mathematical society.

history

It was founded in 1778 by Arnoldus Bastiaan Strabbe (1741–1805), active in the book trade in the city of Amsterdam and responsible for the calibration of wine barrels. As early as 1770 he had founded his own mathematical journal (Oeffenschool der Mathematische Wetenschappen), but it had financial difficulties. By founding a mathematical society, he hoped to give the journal a more solid financial basis. Since he increasingly used the company primarily to sell his own publications, he was expelled from the company in 1804 and died a year later. His successor, the schoolbook publisher Jacob de Gelder (1765-1848), formed a national mathematical society from the founding in Amsterdam and achieved the establishment of mathematics teaching in Dutch schools. Since 2003 the company has been allowed to call itself royal .

Since 1875 the KWG has published the Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde quarterly (which had a forerunner founded in 1856), with a well-known section for mathematical problems. In the course of the 20th century the magazine became more and more a research journal, and mathematics teachers had their own magazine Euclides from 1924 onwards . By 2000, the Archief became a magazine again, targeting a larger audience. The Society's communications (Mededelingen van het Wiskundig Genootschap) are published electronically today. In the 1990s, a magazine for Pythagoras students was launched. From 1893 to 1934, the KWG published the review journal Revue Semestrielle de Publications Mathématiqes under the direction of David Bierens de Haan (who was also editor of the Nieuw Archief) . The magazine was founded in Paris in 1892 on the basis of an international resolution. Under the presidency of the KWG by Diederik Johannes Korteweg , a legacy gave the opportunity to have it appear in the Netherlands, which also promoted international contacts and the international orientation of the KWG itself.

From 1914 the society published the collected works of Thomas Jean Stieltjes and from 1975 those of Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer .

After the Second World War, the society was indirectly involved in the establishment of the Mathematisch Centrum (today Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica , CWI) in Amsterdam and in 1954 it organized the ICM in Amsterdam . From 1965, the monthly meetings were replaced by the annual Nederlands Mathematisch Congres, which lasts two days. There is also an annual winter symposium, especially for high school teachers, and an autumn symposium for the Industrial Mathematics and Applied Mathematics section.

Starting in 1970, the Society awards the Brouwer Medal every three years in memory of Brouwer to outstanding mathematicians (including foreign ones) , first to René Thom .

The company's motto, which goes back to Strabbe, is: Een onvermoeide arbeid komt alles te boven (tireless work overcomes everything).

In the Netherlands, in the field of mathematics, there is also the Dutch Society of Mathematics Teachers, the Dutch Society for Statistics and the Dutch Society for Operations Research.

literature

  • European Mathematical Society Newsletter. March 2000.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Stevin did not publish his books in Latin, but in Dutch. Another important early mathematician in the Netherlands is Ludolph van Ceulen , who held the first Dutch chair for mathematics in Leiden (inspired by Stevin) and is known for his calculation of pi to 35 decimal places. He also gave lectures in Dutch.
  2. ^ Which, according to Beckers (see web links), has to do with the fact that it started late among the amateur mathematics societies in the 18th century.
  3. ↑ Strabbe was already a member of the Hamburg Mathematical Society