Topic #2 ------------ OP-SF NET 16.5 ----------- September 15, 2009

From: Marcel de Bruin and Tom Koornwinder

Henk G. Meijer, professor emeritus at Delft University of Technology, passed away on 7 September 2009 at the age of 68. He is survived by his partner and a grown-up daughter.

Henk Meijer obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 1967 with a thesis in number theory (Uniform distribution of g-adic numbers); his advisor was Prof. Jan Popken. In 1968 he became a lector at Delft University of Technology where he was promoted to full professor (in Analysis) in 1973, keeping this position until his retirement at the end of 2005. During his first decade in Delft he continued working in number theory, publishing 21 papers with primary MSC classification 10 (Number Theory).

He spent much time on duties for the Department in various councils, several of which he chaired. After a period (1978-1984) without publications, he turned his research efforts to orthogonal polynomials and special functions. In particular he gave much attention to Sobolev orthogonal polynomials, on which he also published jointly with Francisco Marcellán and other Spanish mathematicians as well as with his Dutch collaborators. MathSciNet lists 11 of Henk Meijer?s papers with primary MSC classification 42C05 (Orthogonal Functions and Polynomials) and 7 papers with primary classification 33 (Special Functions). His best-known paper is "Determination of all coherent pairs", J. Approx. Theory 89 (1997), 321-343 (MR1451509).

At Delft University of Technology Henk Meijer headed a group on classical analysis which included Herman Bavinck and Marcel de Bruin as senior members. Among his PhD students were Roelof Koekoek and René Swarttouw.