Volkert Simon Maarten van der Willigen

Volkert Simon Maarten van der Willigen also Volcardus Simon Martinus van der Willigen ( born May 9, 1822 in Rockanje, † February 19, 1878 in Haarlem ) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and professor.

Volkert was a son of the vicar Johannes van der Willigen (1777-1857) and his wife Maria Gerarde Elsabe Bodde ( 1795-1865 ). He was a nephew of the Dutch patriots and author Adriaan van der Willigen. Volkert studied at the Hoogeschool Leiden (now the University of Leiden ), and graduated in 1847 with his dissertation De ratione but lucis. After his graduation he became a teacher at the Latin School in Amsterdam. In 1848 he was appointed professor at the Athenaeum Illustre in Deventer. In 1857 he was appointed as a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.

After the Athenaeum Illustre was closed from Deventer in 1864, he was curator of the physical cabinet of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, where Jacob van Breda Gijsbertus Samuël was nine months earlier resigned. In the years as curator, Van der Willigen published 51 writings.

As a scientist researching the Van Willigen about physical units of length and mass. He has published a lot about light and refractive index, but also about magnets. Van der Willigen was part of the Society of Haarlem - he was from 1864 until his death a member of the city council of Haarlem.