Willem van der Woude (15 January 1876 – 23 September 1974) was a Dutch mathematician and rector magnificus (chancellor) of the University of Leiden.

[1] Van der Woude studied at the University of Groningen, and subsequently, from 1901 to 1916, worked as a secondary school teacher in Deventer.

In 1908 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Groningen under Pieter Hendrik Schoute with a thesis titled Over elkaar snijdende normalen aan een ellipsoide en een hyperellipsoide[2] (On intersecting normals to an ellipsoid and a hyperellipsoid).

In 1924, he was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto.

He acted as rector magnificus of the University of Leiden during three separate periods: 1934–1935, 1941–43 and 1945 (until he was succeeded by Berend George Escher).