Paulus Gerdes


Paulus Pierre Joseph Gerdes was a Dutch mathematician and university professor, who was one of the pioneers in the field of ethnomathematics research, particularly in Africa.

Education and career

Gerdes was a student of mathematics and physics as an undergraduate at Radboud University Nijmegen. After visiting Vietnam he returned to Radboud for a second bachelor's degree, in cultural anthropology in 1974, and a master's degree in mathematics in 1975.
He moved to Mozambique in 1976, started working at Eduardo Mondlane University in 1977, and remained in the country for the rest of his life, with positions in the Ministry of Education and Culture and as dean and later rector at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico.
In 1986, he completed a doctorate through the in Germany, with the dissertation Zum erwachenden geometrischen Denken: Tätigkeit und die mögliche Herkunft einiger früher geometrischer Begriffe und Relationen, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mathematik der Entwicklungsländer supervised by Heiner Meyer.
He also headed the founding commission of Lúrio University, and chaired the Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa of the African Mathematical Union. He served as the secretary of the Southern African Mathematical Sciences Association, was vice president of the African Academy of Sciences, and was president of the International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity and of the International Group of Ethno-mathematical Studies.

Recognition

Gerdes was elected to the African Academy of Sciences in 2001, and as a corresponding member of the International Academy of the History of Science in 2005.
A special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and Culture was published in his memory in 2021.

Books

Gerdes's books include:
  • Ethnogeometrie. Kulturanthropologische Beiträge zur Genese und Didaktik der Geometrie . Revised and translated into English as Awakening of Geometrical Thought in Early Culture
  • L'ethnomathématique comme nouveau domaine de recherche en. Quelques réflexions et expériences du Mozambique
  • African Pythagoras: A study in culture and mathematics education
  • Sipatsi: Technology, Art and Geometry in Inhambane
  • Sona Geometry: Reflections on the tradition of sand drawings in Africa south of the Equator
  • Ethnomathematics and Education in Africa
  • Women and Geometry in Southern Africa: Some suggestions for further research ; translated as Femmes et géométrie en Afrique Australe
  • Une tradition géométrique en Afrique—les dessins sur le sable , Vols. I–III
  • Ethnomathematik — dargestellt am Beispiel der Sona Geometrie
  • Lusona: récréations géométriques d'Afrique
  • Geometry from Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations
  • Women, Art and Geometry in Southern Africa
  • Mathematics in African History and Cultures: An annotated bibliography
  • Sona Geometry from Angola: Mathematics of an African tradition
  • African Doctorates in Mathematics: A Catalogue
  • Otthava: Fazer Cestos E Geometria Na Cultura Makhuwa Do Nordeste de Moçambique
  • Drawings from Angola: Living Mathematics
  • Tinlhèlò. Interweaving art and mathematics. Colourful basket trays from the south of Mozambique
  • ''From Ethnomathematics to Art: Design Matrices and Cyclic Matrices''