Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans

He entered Leiden University when he was just 16 as a student of the noted astronomer Frederik Kaiser.

Next he studied asteroids and variable stars, meanwhile hoping for an academic appointment.

In the same year he was appointed a professor at Utrecht University and became the first director of its observatory.

[3] In 1874 he organized an astronomical expedition to the island of Réunion to observe the transit of Venus but, due to bad weather, the results were disappointing.

One of his sons was Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans Jzn, one of the fathers of cryptozoology.