Ferdinand Douwe Veldkamp: 5 September 1931–3 August 1999

Abstract

On 3 August 1999, Ferdinand Douwe Veldkamp, one of the managing editors of Geometriae Dedicata since 1981 passed away. Professor Veldkamp was a passionate mathematician. His area of research comprised large parts of algebra and geometry; it extended from algebraic groups and Lie algebras to ring geometries and their axiomatizations. Veldkamp's pioneering work on polar spaces has become a lasting part of the theory of buildings. From octonian geometries, especially Moufang Hjelmslev planes, as a starting point he opened completely new vistas into the geometry of rings. This becomes evident if one observes that the most general ring geometries which can be reasonably treated are today called Veldkamp planes.