Career
He was professor of astronomy at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, and served as director of the Sterrewacht Sonnenborgh (now the Sterrekundig Instituut) of the university. In 1901 he participated in a Dutch solar eclipse expedition to Karang Sago, Sumatra. He was noted for his observations of variable stars, and published a number of papers on the subject in Astronomische Nachrichten, and elsewhere, from 1917 until 1936.
He proposed naming variable stars in each constellation using a simple numbering system beginning with V1, V2.. and so forth.
However the double-letter system starting with ready reckoner was already in widespread use. As a result, variable stars after QZ were numbered according to Nijland"s system beginning with V335.
The crater Nijland on the Moon is named after him.