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Jan Woltjer was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
.
Woltjer was the son of the classical scholar
Jan WoltjerJan Woltjer was a professor of Classical languages and literature at the VU University in Amsterdam....
. On Dec 13, 1916 he married Hillegonda de Vries in
Groningen. He worked and taught at
Leiden UniversityLeiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, where Gerard P. Kuiper was one of his students. He was the father of the astronomer
Lodewijk WoltjerLodewijk Woltjer studied at the University of Leiden under Jan Oort earning a PhD in astronomy in 1957 with a thesis on the Crab Nebula. This was followed by post-doctoral research appointments to various American universities and the subsequent appointment of professor of theoretical astrophysics...
(born 1930), who was the director general of the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
from 1975 to 1987.
The crater
WoltjerWoltjer is an impact crater that is located in the northern latitudes of the Moon's far side. It is just attached to the southern outer rim of the larger crater Montgolfier. To the southwest is Schneller and to the east is Stoletov....
on the
MoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
and the asteroid
1795 Woltjer1795 Woltjer is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 24, 1960 by Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory.- External links :*...
are both named after him.