Aad Van Wijngaarden

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Adriaan van Wijngaarden (2 November 1916 - 7 February 1987) was an important mathematician and computer scientist who is considered by many to have been the founding father of informatica (computer science) in the Netherlands.

Even though he was trained as an engineer, van Wijngaarden would emphasize and promote the mathematical aspects of computing, first in numerical analysis, then in programming languages and finally in design principles of programming languages. His education was in mechanical engineering, for which he received a degree from Delft University of Technology in 1939.

He then studied for a doctorate in hydrodynamics, but then abandoned the area.

He joined the Nationaal Luchtvaartlaboratorium in 1945 and went with a group to England the following year to learn about new technologies that had been developed there during World War II.