Biography
De Groot was born at Garrelsweer, a tiny village in the municipality of Loppersum, Groningen, on May 7, 1914. He did both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, where he received his Ph.D. in 1942 under the supervision of Gerrit Schaake. He studied mathematics, physics and philosophy as an undergraduate, and began his graduate studies concentrating in algebra and algebraic geometry, but switched to point set topology, the subject of his thesis, despite the general disinterest in the subject in the Netherlands at the time after Brouwer, the Dutch giant in that field, had left it in favor of intuitionism. For several years after leaving the university, De Groot taught mathematics at the secondary school level, but in 1946 he was appointed to the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam, in 1947 he began a lecturership at the University of Amsterdam, in 1948 he moved to a position as professor of mathematics at the Delft University of Technology, and in 1952 he moved again back to the University of Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was head of pure mathematics at the Mathematisch Centrum from 1960 to 1964, and dean of science at Amsterdam University from 1964 on. He also visited Purdue University (1959–1960), Washington University, St. Louis (1963–1964), the University of Florida (1966–1967 and winters thereafter), and the University of South Florida (1971–1972). He died on September 11, 1972.
De Groot had many students, and over 100 academic descendants; Koetsier and van Mill write that many of these younger topologists experienced compactification at first hand while trying to squeeze into the back seat of De Groot's small Mercedes. McDowell writes, "His students essentially constitute the topology faculties at the Dutch universities." The deep influence of de Groot on Dutch topology may be seen in the complex academic genealogy of his namesake Johannes Antonius Marie de Groot (shown in the illustration): the later de Groot, a 1990 Ph.D. in topology, is the senior de Groot's academic grandchild, great-grandchild, and great-great-grandchild via four different paths of academic supervision.
De Groot was elected in 1969 to the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.
Read more about this topic: Johannes De Groot
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