Background
Diederik Johannes Korteweg was born on March 31, 1848, in Den Bosch, Netherlands. He was one of seven children of Adrianus Johannis Korteweg, a judge, and Cornelia Margaretha Holster.
Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
Korteweg studied at the Polytechnical School at Delft (now Delft University of Technology). Just before his graduation as an engineer he turned to mathematics.
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Korteweg studied at the University of Amsterdam, where he received his doctorate in 1878.
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Opening of the new building of the University of Amsterdam. Korteweg is in the second row, the 10th from the right.
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Korteweg was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for 60 years.
educator mathematician scientist
Diederik Johannes Korteweg was born on March 31, 1848, in Den Bosch, Netherlands. He was one of seven children of Adrianus Johannis Korteweg, a judge, and Cornelia Margaretha Holster.
Korteweg attended schools in Den Bosch, studying at a special academy which prepared students for a military career. However, he decided against a military career and, making the first of his changes of direction, he began his studies at the Polytechnical School at Delft (now Delft University of Technology). Just before his graduation as an engineer he turned to mathematics. Later he entered the University of Amsterdam, where he received his doctorate in 1878.
From 1881 until his retirement in 1918 Korteweg was a professor of mathematics at the University of Amsterdam and worked with P. H. Schoute at Groningen and J. C. Kluyver at Leiden.
From 1911 to 1927 Korteweg edited the Oeuvres of Christiaan Huygens, especially volumes XI-XV. He was an editor of the Revue semestrielle des publications mathématiques (1892-1938) and of the Nieuw archief voor wiskunde (1897-1941).
The subject of Korteweg’s dissertation was the velocity of wave propagation in elastic tubes. His sponsor was the physicist J. D. van der Waals, with whom Korteweg subsequently worked on several papers dealing with electricity, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics.
Korteweg established a criterion for stability of orbits of particles moving under a central force (1886), investigated so-called folding points on van der Waals’ thermodynamic surface (1889), and discovered a type of stationary wave advancing in a rectangular canal, the “cnodoil wave” (1895).
Korteweg was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for 60 years, and member of the Dutch Mathematical Society for 75 years.
Korteweg showed great versatility in his teaching, with his usual courses being on analytic and projective geometry, mechanics, astronomy and probability theory. He put large efforts into his lectures and expected his students to do likewise.
Korteweg was married to Wibbina Maria d’Aulnis de Bourouill.