Cornelis Lely

Cornelis Lely (born 23 September 1854 in Amsterdam; died 22 January 1929 in The Hague) was a Dutch civil engineer and statesman. He oversaw the passage of an act of parliament authorizing construction of the Zuiderzee Works, a huge project – designed to his own plans – that turned the Zuiderzee into a lake and made possible the conversion of a vast area of former seabed into dry land.