Vorderman, who was born in The Hague, first travelled to the Dutch East Indies in 1866 as a Naval Medical Officer.

In 1871 he joined the Civil Health Department, and was stationed at Sumenep on the island of Madura until 1881 when he was transferred to Batavia (now Jakarta).

Before leaving he asked his friend Adolphe Vorderman, who was Chief Medical Officer, to continue the research on the link between rice and the disease.

In a 2007 episode of the BBC genealogical documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, Carol Vorderman researched her great-grandfather Adolphe.

Apart from his nutritional study, Vorderman published papers on local poisons, drugs, foods and birds, and was a collector of botanical specimens.