F. B. J. Kuiper

F. B. J. Kuiper
Born	Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper (1907-07-07)7 July 1907 The Hague, Netherlands
Died	14 November 2003(2003-11-14) (aged 96) Zeist, Netherlands
Spouse	Hanna Nieboer
Children	4
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Leiden
Thesis	Die indogermanischen Nasalpräsentia: ein Versuch zu einer morphologischen Analyse (1934)
Academic work
Discipline	Indo-European linguistics
Sub-discipline	Indology

Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper (/ˈkaɪpər/ KY-pər, Dutch: [ˈkœypər]; July 7, 1907 – November 14, 2003) was a Dutch scholar in Indology, and "one of the last great Indologists of the past century ... His very innovative work covers virtually all the fields of Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan philology, linguistics, mythology and theater, as well as Indo-European, Dravidian, Munda and Pan-Indian linguistics".

Biography

Kuiper was born in The Hague, studied Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Indo-European linguistics at Leiden University, and in 1934 completed his doctoral thesis on the nasal presents in Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. After give years as a high school teacher of Latin and Greek at the lyceum of Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesia, in 1939 he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit at Leiden University.

Kuiper was a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences between 1937 and 1939, when he resigned. He became a member again in 1948. He was a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He died in Zeist and was buried in the Rijnhof cemetery at Leiden.