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Paulus Gerdes
Paulus Pierre Joseph Gerdes (November 11, 1952 – November 10, 2014) was a Dutch mathematician and university professor, who was one of the pioneers in the field of ethnomathematics research, particularly in Africa.
Gerdes was a student of mathematics and physics as an undergraduate at Radboud University Nijmegen. After visiting Vietnam he returned to Radboud for a second bachelor's degree, in cultural anthropology in 1974, and a master's degree in mathematics in 1975.
He moved to Mozambique in 1976, started working at Eduardo Mondlane University in 1977, and remained in the country for the rest of his life, with positions in the Ministry of Education and Culture and as dean and later rector at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico (now Pedagogical University of Maputo).
In 1986, he completed a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) through the Pädagogische Hochschule „Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander“ Dresden in Germany, with the dissertation Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken: Tätigkeit und die mögliche Herkunft einiger früher geometrischer Begriffe und Relationen, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mathematik der Entwicklungsländer [On the awakening of geometric thinking: activity and the possible origin of some early geometric concepts and relations, with special reference to the mathematics of the developing countries] supervised by Heiner Meyer.
He also headed the founding commission of Lúrio University, and chaired the Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa of the African Mathematical Union. He served as the secretary of the Southern African Mathematical Sciences Association, was vice president of the African Academy of Sciences, and was president of the International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity and of the International Group of Ethno-mathematical Studies.
Gerdes was elected to the African Academy of Sciences in 2001, and as a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science in 2005.
A special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and Culture was published in his memory in 2021.
Gerdes's books include:
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Paulus Gerdes
Paulus Pierre Joseph Gerdes (November 11, 1952 – November 10, 2014) was a Dutch mathematician and university professor, who was one of the pioneers in the field of ethnomathematics research, particularly in Africa.
Gerdes was a student of mathematics and physics as an undergraduate at Radboud University Nijmegen. After visiting Vietnam he returned to Radboud for a second bachelor's degree, in cultural anthropology in 1974, and a master's degree in mathematics in 1975.
He moved to Mozambique in 1976, started working at Eduardo Mondlane University in 1977, and remained in the country for the rest of his life, with positions in the Ministry of Education and Culture and as dean and later rector at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico (now Pedagogical University of Maputo).
In 1986, he completed a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) through the Pädagogische Hochschule „Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander“ Dresden in Germany, with the dissertation Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken: Tätigkeit und die mögliche Herkunft einiger früher geometrischer Begriffe und Relationen, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mathematik der Entwicklungsländer [On the awakening of geometric thinking: activity and the possible origin of some early geometric concepts and relations, with special reference to the mathematics of the developing countries] supervised by Heiner Meyer.
He also headed the founding commission of Lúrio University, and chaired the Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa of the African Mathematical Union. He served as the secretary of the Southern African Mathematical Sciences Association, was vice president of the African Academy of Sciences, and was president of the International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity and of the International Group of Ethno-mathematical Studies.
Gerdes was elected to the African Academy of Sciences in 2001, and as a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science in 2005.
A special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and Culture was published in his memory in 2021.
Gerdes's books include: