Jump to content

Ietje Paalman-de Miranda

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ietje Paalman-de Miranda
Born
Aïda Beatrijs de Miranda[1]

20 February 1936 (1936-02-20)
Died11 May 2020(2020-05-11) (aged 84)
NationalityDutch
Occupations
  • Mathematician
  • professor
Known forfirst female full professor of mathematics in Amsterdam

Aïda Beatrijs “Ietje” Paalman-de Miranda (20 February 1936 – 11 May 2020) was a Surinamese-born Dutch mathematician and full professor.

She was born in Uitvlugt, Paramaribo.[1] When she was 17 years old she moved from Suriname to the Netherlands to study mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. In that era, it was very unusual to study mathematics and she was the only woman at the faculty. She graduated cum laude on 23 November 1960. She started a PhD with Johannes de Groot as her supervisor. She defended her PhD thesis "Topological Semigroups" and obtained her degree in 1960, also cum laude. In 1980 she became a full professor in pure mathematics, becoming the first female full professor of mathematics in Amsterdam.[2]

Research

[edit]

Paalman's research was foremost in topology and set theory. She was the PhD advisor of three students, co-advised by Jan van Mill.[3] She published a book (Topological semigroups - Mathematical Centre Tracts, 1964, Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam) and 11 research papers about W-groups, topological representations of semi-groups and about compact groups.[4] Paalman was also the author of numerous lecture notes for the courses she taught at the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam.

Personal

[edit]

She married Dolf Paalman (chief pharmacist). They had two children and three grand children.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Album Academicum - Prof. dr. A.B. Paalman - de Miranda, 1936 -". University of Amsterdam (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 3 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b Margriet van der Heijden (20 May 2020). "Ze hield zielsveel van zuivere wiskunde". NRC (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 7 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Aida Paalman-de Miranda", The Mathematics Genealogy Project, retrieved 2021-01-27
  4. ^ Scott W. Williams (thanks to Jan Aarts), "Aida Paalman", Mathematicians of the African Diaspora - Black women in Mathematics, retrieved 2021-01-27