Jan Cornelis Terlouw is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 scientist

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Background

Jan Terlouw was born in Kamperveen

Kamperveen

Kamperveen is a small village in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Kampen, about 5 km south of the city.Kamperveen was a separate municipality until 1937, when it became a part of IJsselmuiden....

, Overijssel

Overijssel

Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

. He was the eldest son in his family, he has two brothers and two sisters and grew up in the Veluwe. After high school, Terlouw studied at Utrecht University

Utrecht University

Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....

 were he obtained an MSc

Master of Science

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

 degree in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 and a PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 degree in nuclear physics

Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...

. After graduating, he worked as a physics researcher in the Netherlands, the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. After working for thirteen years, he became a politician, joining the Dutch House of Representatives (the lower house

Lower house

A lower house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house.Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide the lower house has come to wield more power...

 of the Dutch legislature

Legislature

A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

) as a member of the Democraten 66 political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in 1967. Terlouw acted as party leader from 1973-1982. He was minister of Economic Affairs from 1981 to 1982 and Queen's Commissioner of Gelderland

Gelderland

Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...

 from 1991 to 1996, the year in which he retired. He joined the Dutch Senate in 1999.

Terlouw also wrote 24 children's books, most notably Winter in Wartime

Winter in Wartime

Winter in Wartime is a novel written by the Dutch writer Jan Terlouw. The story is about a sixteen year old Dutch boy who lives through the last winter of the Second world war....

(Oorlogswinter, 1972) and How to Become King (Koning van Katoren, 1971), both of which won the Gouden Griffel

Gouden Griffel

The Gouden Griffel is an important award given to authors of children's or teenager's literature in the Netherlands.Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek for the best children's books written in...

 and have been made into motion pictures directed by Martin Koolhoven

Martin Koolhoven

Martin Koolhoven is a Dutch film director and screenwriter.Born as Martinus Wouter Koolhoven, Koolhoven graduated from Dutch film school in 1996 and almost immediately made an impact on the Dutch film industry with his 53 minute television film Duister Licht in which the slaughtering of a pig was...

.

Terlouw is married to Alexandra van Hulst and has four children.

Awards

• 1972 Gouden Griffel
  Gouden Griffel
  The Gouden Griffel is an important award given to authors of children's or teenager's literature in the Netherlands.Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek for the best children's books written in...
  
   for the novel "How to Become King"
• 1973 Gouden Griffel
  Gouden Griffel
  The Gouden Griffel is an important award given to authors of children's or teenager's literature in the Netherlands.Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek for the best children's books written in...
  
  for the novel "Winter in Wartime"
• 1990 Prize of the Netherlands Children's Jury for the novel "The figure-skater"
• 2000 Prize of the Dutch Joung Jury for "Eigen rechter"