Arie Poldervaart was a Dutch petrologist and leading expert on igneous and metamorphic rocks. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1959–1960.
Biography
Arie Poldervaart grew up in Java, which was then part of the Dutch East Indies. In September 1934 he went to the Netherlands to complete his schooling. For the two academic years 1935–1936 and 1936–1937 he studied applied and industrial chemistry at Technische Hoogeschool Delft. In the summer of 1937 he rejoined his parents in Bandung. After a few months in Java working as an apprentice in the Dutch government geological survey, he matriculated in January 1938 at the University of Cape Town to study chemistry and geology. After receiving his M.S. in 1940, he became a doctoral candidate under the supervision of Frederick Walker, F.R.S.E. Starting in 1939, they did field work together on the Karoo dolerites. Poldervaart received his Ph.D. in 1942. In December 1942 he married Gertrude Middleton. In 1942 the Japanese invaded Java and Poldervaart's parents were imprisoned. His mother died in 1944. After teaching science at Rondebosch's Diocesan College, he left South Africa in December 1944 to go to Australia and join the Netherlands East Indies Forces. After leaving military service in 1946, he returned to South Africa and continued his research with Walker on the Karoo dolerites. In 1949 Walker and Poldervaart published an important monograph on their research. Also in 1949 Poldervaart and von Bäckstrom published an article on their field work. Poldervaar won the gold medal of the Geological Society of South Africa. Harry H. Hess recommended him as Columbia University's professor of petrology in succession to Samuel James Shand. In 1951 Poldervaart immigrated with his family to the United States to become an associate professor at Columbia University. Crust of the Earth, a Symposium, edited by Poldervaart, became one of the Geological Society of American's best-selling books. In 1957 he was appointed a full professor, retaining the professorship until his death in 1964. In September 1958 Harry H. Hess recommended him for a Guggenheim Fellowship, which was awarded in 1959. When he died of a heart ailment, Poldervaart had partially completed a comprehensive textbook on igneous and metamorphic petrology involving basalts. The work, completed and edited by Harry H. Hess, was published in 2 volumes as Basalts: The Poldervaart Treatise on Rocks of Basaltic Composition by John Wiley & Sons. Upon his death in 1964 Poldervaart was survived by his widow, a son, and two daughters, as well as his father and a sister.
