Introduction
David van Dantzig (September 23, 1900 – July 22, 1959) was a Dutch mathematician, well known for the construction in topology of the dyadic solenoid.
Biography
Born in Amsterdam in 1900, Van Dantzig started to study Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam in 1917, where Gerrit Mannoury lectured. He received his PhD at the University of Groningen in 1931 with a thesis entitled "Studien over topologische algebra" under supervision of Bartel Leendert van der Waerden.
He was appointed professor at the Delft University of Technology in 1938, and at the University of Amsterdam in 1946. Among his doctoral students were Jan Hemelrijk (1950), Johan Kemperman (1950), David Johannes Stoker (1955), and Constance van Eeden (1958). In Amsterdam he was one of the founders of the Mathematisch Centrum. At the University of Amsterdam he was succeeded by Jan Hemelrijk.
Originally working on topics in differential geometry and topology, after World War II he focused on probability, emphasizing the applicability to statistical hypothesis testing.
In 1949 he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Publications
Books, a selection:
- 1931. Studien over topologische algebra. Doctoral thesis University of Groningen.
- 1832. Over de elementen van het wiskundig denken : voordracht. Rede Delft. Groningen : Noordhoff.
- 1938. Vragen en schijnvragen over ruimte en tijd : een toepassing van den wiskundigen denkvorm. Inaugurale rede Technische Hogeschool te Delft
- 1948. De functie der wetenschap : drie voordrachten, met discussie. With E.W. Beth and C.F.P. Stutterheim. 's-Gravenhage : Leopold
Articles, a selection:
- D. van Dantzig, C. Scheffer "On hereditary time discrete stochastic processes, considered as stationary Markov chains, and the corresponding general form of Wald’s fundamental identity," Indag. Math. (16), No.4, (1954), p. 377–388