150
8 In the Meantime in Groningen
The Groningsche Studentenalmanak for 1883 mentions:
From Prof. Kapteyn we learned to have a look at the depths of the universe;
astronomy always captivates the layman, but one may be convinced that after
his fascinating lectures, even if it would concern a less popular subject, we would
still practice this science with zeal and pleasure.
And in the commemorative book on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of
the University of Groningen in 1964, professor of physics Wiepko Gerardus
Perdok (1914–2005) wrote [76]:
For him, understanding was worth more than knowledge of facts and he preferred
to show at his lectures how today’s well-established certainties used to be problems
and how they had been solved by his predecessors. All of Kapteyn’s disciples
testified to the rare clarity of his discourse and experienced the inspiring influence
that emanated from him. The recollection of the way in which they saw the
esteemed teacher construct a circle will not easily be forgotten: Kapteyn took
the big compass under his arm at some distance from the blackboard, stormed
towards it with the sharp point ahead and drove it deep into the wood, saying:
‘I need a fixed point’!
The later famous astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort (Fig. 8.1) studied physics
and astronomy in Groningen and was so fascinated by the captivating lectures
of Kapteyn that he decided definitively for astronomy. Oort began his studies
in 1917, four years before Kapteyn’s retirement. Eventually Oort received his
Ph.D. in Groningen under Pieter van Rhijn. In his inaugural lecture with
which he accepted his appointment to a professorship in Leiden he referred to
Kapteyn as ‘my inspiring teacher’. Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn’s biography
[1] quotes a part from a written statement by Oort about his inspiring style of
lecturing:
I have never met anyone who could do this to such an extent, and I believe this
is the most beautiful way of scientific research. Being in his company, during
lectures or a colloquium, [a scientific lecture at an institute] with something
unusually stimulating, most of the time I left with more beautiful and happier thoughts than when I arrived. This is because he saw the beauty of nature
and of science, the interrelationship of which he saw more clearly than anyone
else... Whereas other lectures would tend to make a first-year student lose his
confidence, the astronomy course restored and enhanced that.
And in an autobiographical article Oort wrote in 1981 [77]:
8 In the Meantime in Groningen
The Groningsche Studentenalmanak for 1883 mentions:
From Prof. Kapteyn we learned to have a look at the depths of the universe;
astronomy always captivates the layman, but one may be convinced that after
his fascinating lectures, even if it would concern a less popular subject, we would
still practice this science with zeal and pleasure.
And in the commemorative book on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of
the University of Groningen in 1964, professor of physics Wiepko Gerardus
Perdok (1914–2005) wrote [76]:
For him, understanding was worth more than knowledge of facts and he preferred
to show at his lectures how today’s well-established certainties used to be problems
and how they had been solved by his predecessors. All of Kapteyn’s disciples
testified to the rare clarity of his discourse and experienced the inspiring influence
that emanated from him. The recollection of the way in which they saw the
esteemed teacher construct a circle will not easily be forgotten: Kapteyn took
the big compass under his arm at some distance from the blackboard, stormed
towards it with the sharp point ahead and drove it deep into the wood, saying:
‘I need a fixed point’!
The later famous astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort (Fig. 8.1) studied physics
and astronomy in Groningen and was so fascinated by the captivating lectures
of Kapteyn that he decided definitively for astronomy. Oort began his studies
in 1917, four years before Kapteyn’s retirement. Eventually Oort received his
Ph.D. in Groningen under Pieter van Rhijn. In his inaugural lecture with
which he accepted his appointment to a professorship in Leiden he referred to
Kapteyn as ‘my inspiring teacher’. Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn’s biography
[1] quotes a part from a written statement by Oort about his inspiring style of
lecturing:
I have never met anyone who could do this to such an extent, and I believe this
is the most beautiful way of scientific research. Being in his company, during
lectures or a colloquium, [a scientific lecture at an institute] with something
unusually stimulating, most of the time I left with more beautiful and happier thoughts than when I arrived. This is because he saw the beauty of nature
and of science, the interrelationship of which he saw more clearly than anyone
else... Whereas other lectures would tend to make a first-year student lose his
confidence, the astronomy course restored and enhanced that.
And in an autobiographical article Oort wrote in 1981 [77]: