Prof. Jac. P. Thijsse (1896-1981) was born the son of biologist Jac. P. Thijsse and graduated from Delft Technical College in 1919. In 1921 he left with his wife A. van Niftrik for the former Dutch East Indies, where he worked as a civil servant for the municipality of Bandung until 1942. From 1946 to 1950, Thijsse had a coordinating role in the reconstruction of the city as head of the Central Planning Bureau, Department of Traffic and Public Works, based in Jakarta. After the war, city planning work had been taken up by the urban planners still available in Indonesia who were housed in the Central Planning Bureau. These urban planners were sent out to cities that had suffered greatly from the war and for which new urban plans had to be drawn up. During the same period, Thijsse worked as an extraordinary professor at the Bandoeng Technical College from 1946 to 1950, and as a professor from 1950 to 1954. In 1954, Thijsse returned to the Netherlands.