Cornelius Bernardus Van Niel was a Dutch-American microbiologist.
Education
In 1923, Cornelius Van Niel married Christina Van Hemert, graduated in chemical engineering at Delft University and became an assistant to Albert January Kluyver, who had initiated the field of comparative biochemistry. In 1928 he wrote his Doctor of Philosophy dissertation ("The Propionic Acid Bacteria") after which he left for the United States to continue his work at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.
Career
He introduced the study of general microbiology to the United States and made key discoveries explaining the chemistry of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis (1931) By studying purple sulfur bacteria and green sulfur bacteria he was the first scientist to demonstrate that photosynthesis is a light-dependent redox reaction in 1931, in which hydrogen from an oxidizable compound reduces carbon dioxide to cellular materials. Expressed as: 2 H2A + Carbon dioxide → 2A + CH2O + H2O where A is the electron acceptor.
His discovery predicted that H2O is the hydrogen donor in green plant photosynthesis and is oxidized to O2.
The chemical summation of photosynthesis was a milestone in the understanding of the chemistry of photosynthesis. This was later experimentally verified by Robert Hill.
In a nutshell, van Niel proved that plants give off oxygen as a result of splitting water molecules during photosynthesis, not carbon dioxide molecules as thought before. Bacterial taxonomy Van Niel also played a key role in the development of Bacterial taxonomy.
In 1962, Van Niel in collaboration with Roger Y. Stanier defined prokaryotes as cells in which the nuclear material is not surrounded by a nuclear membrane, a definition that is still used to date.
Teaching Shortly after his arrival at Hopkins Marine Station, Van Niel developed a course in general microbiology which was to become widely influential. and Arthur Kornberg, the recipient of the 1959 Nobel prize for deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis. 1955: Marjory Stephenson Prize of the Society for General Microbiology 1966: Charles F. Kettering Award of the American Society of Plant Biologists 1967: Rumford Prize 1970: Leeuwenhoek Medal Y. B.
Membership
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.