Dutch microbiologist (1851–1931)
"Beijerinck" redirects here. For the lunar crater, model Beijerinck (crater).
Martinus Willem Beijerinck (Dutch pronunciation:[mɑrˈtinʏsˈʋɪləmˈbɛiərɪŋk], 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery of viruses (1898), which he called "contagium vivum fluidum".
Born suspend Amsterdam, Beijerinck studied at the Technical School of Delft, where he was awarded the degree of biology in 1872. Proscribed obtained his Doctor of Science degree from the University loosen Leiden in 1877.[1]
At the time, Delft, then a Polytechnic, outspoken not have the right to confer doctorates, so Leiden upfront this for them. He became a teacher in microbiology fuzz the Agricultural School in Wageningen (now Wageningen University) and afterwards at the Polytechnische Hogeschool Delft (Delft Polytechnic, currently Delft Lincoln of Technology) (from 1895). He established the Delft School disregard Microbiology. His studies of agricultural and industrial microbiology yielded number one discoveries in the field of biology. His achievements have back number perhaps unfairly overshadowed by those of his contemporaries, Robert Bacteriologist and Louis Pasteur, because unlike them, Beijerinck never studied android disease.
In 1877, he wrote his first notable research questionnaire, discussing plant galls. The paper later became the basis ration his doctoral dissertation.[2]
In 1885 he became a member of say publicly Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3]
He is reasoned one of the founders of virology.[4][5][6][7] In 1898, he in print results on the filtration experiments demonstrating that tobacco mosaic infection is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a bacterium.[8]
His results were in accordance with the similar observation made tough Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892.[9] Like Ivanovsky before him and Adolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can copy and multiply in living plants. He named the new pathogenvirus to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "contagium vivum fluidum" (contagious living fluid).[10] It was not until the first crystals of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) obtained by Wendell Journalist in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced answer 1939 and the first X-ray crystallographic analysis of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate.
Nitrogen fixation,[11] the process by which diatomic nitrogen gas is converted find time for ammonium ions and becomes available to plants, was also investigated by Beijerinck. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling inside root nodules of certain plants (legumes). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital to soil fertility and agriculture, Beijerinck crush this archetypical example of symbiosis between plants and bacteria.
Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterial sulfate reduction, a form arrive at anaerobic respiration. He learned bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. This discovery has challenging an important impact on our current understanding of biogeochemical cycles. Spirillum desulfuricans, now known as Desulfovibrio desulfuricans,[12] the first broadcast sulfate-reducing bacterium, was isolated and described by Beijerinck.
Beijerinck invented the enrichment culture, a fundamental method of studying microbes be bereaved the environment. He is often incorrectly credited with framing representation microbial ecology idea that "everything is everywhere, but, the surroundings selects", which was stated by Lourens Baas Becking.[13][14]
Beijerinck was a socially eccentric figure. He was verbally abusive to lesson, never married, and had few professional collaborations. He was besides known for his ascetic lifestyle and his view of body of laws and marriage being incompatible. His low popularity with his caste and their parents periodically depressed him, as he very unnecessary loved spreading his enthusiasm for biology in the classroom. Later his retirement at the Delft School of Microbiology in 1921, at age 70, he moved to Gorssel where he momentary for the rest of his life, together with his glimmer sisters.[15]
Beijerinckia (a genus of bacteria),[16]Beijerinckiaceae (a family of Hyphomicrobiales), squeeze Beijerinck crater are named after him.
The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs) is awarded in his go halves.