Dijkstra meaning

Edsger W. Dijkstra - A.M. Turing Award Laureate.

Quick Info

Born
11 May
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Died
6 August
Nuenen, The Netherlands
Summary
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra was a Dutch mathematician and computer scientist best known for his shortest-path algorithm in graph theory.

Biography

Edsger Dijkstra's parents were Douwe Wybe Dijkstra and Brechtje Cornelia Kluijver (or Kluyver); he was the third of their four children.

Edsger Dijkstra - Engineering and Technology History Wiki - ETHW

His father taught chemistry at the high school in Rotterdam while his mother was trained as a mathematician although she never had a formal position. Dijkstra wrote later of his mother's mathematical influence on him [9]:-

she had a great agility in manipulating formulae and a wonderful gift for finding very elegant solutions.
He attended High School in Rotterdam and in his final years at school he decided he wanted to study law.

His ambition was to represent the Netherlands at the United Nations and felt that a law degree was the first step towards this. He took his final school examinati