Isaac Beeckman

Isaac Beeckman (1588 to 1637) was a Dutch philosopher and scientist who, through his studies and contact with leading natural philosophers, may have virtually given birth to modern atomism. Born in Middelburg in Zeeland to a strongly Calvinistic family that had fled the Spanish controlled Southern Netherlands, he studied theology, literature and mathematics at Leiden, where his most influential teachers were probably Rudolph Snellius and Simon Stevin. He turned to the candle making business of his father, set up his own company in Zierikzee, and while trying to improve the process worked on water conduits and meteorological observations. He studied medicine at Caen and graduated in 1618, and then taught at the Latin schools of Utrecht, Rotterdam, where he founded a Collegium Mechanicum, and Dordrecht, where he was rector from 1627 until his death. He taught Johan de Witt and was a teacher and friend of René Descartes, whom he met in Breda in 1618.