Gerard de Zeeuw

Gerard de Zeeuw (born 11 March 1936) is a Dutch scientist and Emeritus professor Mathematical modelling of complex social systems at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is known for his work on the theory and practice of action research, particularly on the "Problems of increasing competence," "Second order organisational research" and "Three phases of science: A methodological exploration."

De Zeeuw was born in 1936 in Banjoewangi Indonesia, in the former Dutch Indies in a middle-class family. Part of the Second World War he and his family were imprisoned in Japanese prison camps. In secondary school he was introduced to science by Free Van Heek, Professor of empirical sociology at the Leiden University, who motivated him to use his own library and write a paper, his first, on action and action research.

De Zeeuw studied at the Leiden University from 1955 to 1962, obtaining degrees in Mathematics, Statistics and Econometrics. In 1961-1962 he continued his studies at the Erasmus University under Jan Tinbergen, obtaining a degree in Econometrics. At the Stanford University in 1963-1964 he studied mathematical psychology under Patrick Suppes en Bob Estes and finished his PhD exam. Back in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam in 1973 he received his Ph.D. with the thesis, entitled Model thinking in psychology.

De Zeeuw served most of his academic career at the University of Amsterdam, where he had started in 1964 and retired in 2006. In 1971 he was Senior Researcher at the Psychological Laboratory of the University of Amsterdam, and in 1974 he was appointed full professor in Research methodology, specifically in the fields of adult education, social work and social helping, community development and social theory. In 1993 he became Professor of Mathematical modelling of complex social systems. At the University of Amsterdam he has been dean of the Faculty of Andragogy, Chair of the department of research methodology in the Faculty of Psychology, and Board member of the university.

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