Tjalling Koopmans

American mathematician

Born: August 28, 1910 · Died: February 26, 1985

Famous Persons

Who was Tjalling Koopmans?

Tjalling Charles Koopmans (August 28, 1910 – February 26, 1985) was a Dutch-American mathematician and economist. Koopmans was born in 's-Graveland, Netherlands. He began his university education at the Utrecht University at seventeen, specializing in mathematics. In 1936, he graduated from Leiden University with a PhD, under the direction of Hendrik Kramers. Koopmans showed that on the basis of certain efficiency criteria, it is possible to make important deductions concerning optimum price systems. Three years later, in 1930, he switched to theoretical physics. In addition to mathematical economics, Koopmans extended his explorations to econometrics and statistics. He also worked for the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.

Historical significance

He was the joint winner with Leonid Kantorovich of the 1975 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on the theory of the optimum allocation of resources. In 1933, he met Jan Tinbergen, the winner of the 1969 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and moved to Amsterdam to study mathematical economics under him. The title of the thesis was "Linear regression analysis of economic time series".

Sources and further reading

Use the dated article for the day-specific account; use these references to check the event record and explore its wider historical context.

Wikipedia source

Cite this page

MLA

“Tjalling Koopmans.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/tjalling-koopmans/. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

APA

Tjalling Koopmans. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/tjalling-koopmans/

Chicago

“Tjalling Koopmans.” thisDay. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/tjalling-koopmans/.

Found an error? Let us know.