Bartel Leendert van der Waerden was a very smart man who lived a long time ago. He was born in 1903 and he died in 1996. He was from the Netherlands, which is a country in Europe. He was very good at math and he liked to study things like numbers and patterns.
Van der Waerden did a lot of work on a subject called algebra. This is a type of math that uses letters and symbols to talk about numbers and things that follow patterns. He wrote many books on this subject, which helped other people learn about algebra too.
He also did some work in another area of math called topology. This is about studying the shapes of things and how they can be changed without breaking them. For example, think about a rubber band. You can stretch it and twist it, but it is still the same rubber band. That is what topology is about.
Van der Waerden was a very important mathematician who helped many people learn about algebra and topology. His work is still used by mathematicians today, and we can all learn from his ideas about numbers and patterns.