Jan TerlouwAfter studying mathematics and physics, Professor Dr. J.C. (Jan) Terlouw (1931) spent thirteen years doing research work in physics in the Netherlands, the United States and Sweden. He then went into politics.
He was deputy prime minister and Minister for Economic Affairs in the Netherlands in 1981-1982. Between 1983 and 1991 he was secretary-general of the ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of Transport) in Paris, between 1991 and 1996 he was Queen's Commissioner in the province of Gelderland, and between 1999 and 2003 he was a member of the Netherlands' Senate of the States General. There his areas of interest included Defence, Transport and Water Management, Economic Affairs, Development Co-operation and the Interior.
Jan Terlouw has now retired, but he still holds a large number of social positions.
Jan Terlouw has also written some thirteen children's books since 1970. The best known are How to Become King (Koning van Katoren) and Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter), both of which have run to more than fifty editions, have been translated into many languages, and for which he has been awarded prominent Dutch prizes.
