After schooling in Haarlem he went to the Technical University in Delft to study mine engineering and obtained a diploma in 1908.
He received a doctoral degree for a dissertation on South African nepheline syenites in 1910.
He became a professor of geology at the Delft Technical University in 1918 and during his career he travelled to Brazil, North America, South Africa and parts of southeast Asia to conduct studies on rocks.
He became a professor at the University of Amsterdam in 1928, succeeding Eugène Dubois and worked there until his retirement in 1956.
[1] An extinct genus of tarpon relative, Brouweria, is named after him due to him discovering the first known specimens.