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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL
November 4, I 897—March l O. 1 985
BY H. A. BARKER AND ROBERT E. HUNGATE
CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL Kees to his friends
and students—is best known for his discovery of mul-
tiple types of bacterial photosynthesis, his decluction that all
types of photosynthesis involve the same photochemical
mechanism, and his extraordinary ability to transmit his en-
thusiasm for the study of microorganisms to his students. His
interest in purple ant! green bacteria developed in his first
year as a graduate student. After thoughtful analysis of the
confusing literature clearing with these bacteria, he carried
out a few simple experiments on their growth requirements.
Interpreting the results in accordance with the theories of his
professor, A. J. Kluyver, on the role of hydrogen transfer in
metabolism, he developer! a revolutionary concept of the
chemistry of photosynthesis that was to influence research on
the topic for many years.
As a teacher he was unsurpassed. Although he taught in
a small, somewhat remote institution with modest facilities,
the force of his personality, his eloquence and scholarship
made the Hopkins Marine Station a mecca for students of
general microbiology throughout the western world.
EDUCATION AND EARLY LIFE
Van Nie} was born in Haarlem, The Netherlands, into a
family steeped in a highly conservative Calvinist tradition.
389
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390
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
His father and several uncles were businessmen and did not
have a professional education. His father sties! when he was
seven years old, ant! thereafter his mother largely depended
on his uncles for acivice in educating her young son. Since
family tradition decreer! that a son shouIc! succeed to his fa-
ther's business, Kees was sent to a secondary school with a
curriculum clesignecl to prepare students for a commercial
career.
At the end of his third year in high school when he was
fifteen years old, an event occurred that changed the course
of his education. The family was spending their summer va-
cation as guests of a friend on a large estate in northern
Holland clevotec! to various agricultural activities. A part was
set aside for testing the effectiveness of various soil treat-
ments on crop production, and van Nie] has described how
his host introclucec! him to the methods of agricultural re-
search and how impressed he was to learn that "one could
raise a question and obtain a more or less definitive answer
to it as a result of an experiment . . . particularly because ~
hac! grown up in a milieu where any kind of question was
invariably answered by the stereotyped reply: 'Because some-
bocly (usually a member of the family) said so"' (1967, I, p. 2~.
Van Niel's interest ant! enthusiasm for these activities lect
his family to reevaluate his education, and he was finally al-
lowed to transfer to a college preparatory high school. Uncler
the influence of one of his teachers in the new school he
developed a strong interest in chemistry. He liked analytical
chemistry so much that he set up a small laboratory at home
and analyzed samples of fertilizer in his spare time. His aca-
clemic record in high school was sufficient to obtain acimis-
sion to the Chemistry Division of the Technical University in
Delft on graduation without taking the usual entrance ex-
· —
amlnatlon.
He entered the University in autumn 1916 but, after only
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 391
three months, was incluctect into the Dutch army, in which
he server! until the end of December 1918. Life in the army
was both a traumatic and a highly educational experience.
Removed from the protective environment of his family for
the first time, he was exposed to the rough and impersonal
life of military training. He later wrote that up to this time
he tract been "utterly unaware of the many problems to which
man is exposed and with which he must learn to cope." For-
tunately, he receiver! practical and intellectual support from
a former high school classmate inclucted at the same time,
Jacques de Kacit.
After a few clays in a primitive military camp on the out-
skirts of Amersfoort, Jacques proposer! that they rent a room
in the city where they couIct spend their free time in greater
comfort. They were soon joined by a friend of Jacques, ant!
the three comrades spent their leisure hours discussing many
subjects. Jacques was an intellectual with a cosmopolitan
background. He introduced van Nie} to new worIcis of liter-
ature, art, ant! philosophy. Under his influence, van Nie! read
many of the works of Zola, Anatole France, Ibsen, Strinct-
berg, Shaw, and Nietzsche. Their ideas frequently conflicted
with van Niel's Calvinist background and lee! to what he later
described as the rebellious phase of his life.
On returning to the University after army service, van
Nie! was undecided! whether he should continue the stucly of
chemistry or take up the study of literature. But, discussing
the alternatives with an aunt whose judgment he trusted "at
least in part because of her unconventional attitudes and be-
havior," he was finally persuaded to continue on in chemistry.
Still, his mental turmoil was such that he could not immecti-
ately switch back into the normal academic routine. He spent
the first six months reacting French, English, Scandinavian,
and Russian 19th century literature ant! was not prepared to
take the first year chemistry examination in June 1919.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
In the autumn, however, he finally settled down to serious
study and by intensive effort was able in June 1920 to pass
both the first- ant! second-year chemistry examinations. Dur-
ing the following year, van Nie! took several courses in biol-
ogy in addition to the prescribed chemistry program, includ-
ing G. van Iterson's courses in genetics anct plant anatomy
ant! chemistry ant} M. W. Beijerinck's courses in general ant!
applied microbiology.
By November 1921, van Nie! had completed all the re-
quirements for the chemical engineering degree except a
year of work in a specialized area of his own choosing. Al-
ready strongly attracted to microbiology from his exposure
to Beijerinck's courses, he decided to specialize in it after
hearing the inaugural lecture of A. I. Kluyver, who succeeded
Beijerinck that year.
Kluyver suggested that van Nie] investigate the longevity
of yeast in a medium containing sugar but little or no nitro-
gen. This problem provided some experience with microbi-
ological and analytical methods and met the requirements for
the degree, though the results were unimpressive.
As a sidle project, van Nie! checked a published report that
a nonmotile Sarcina conic! develop flagella and motility by
repeated transfer in a special medium. His first publication
(van Nie] 1923) showed that the previous author had con-
fused Brownian movement with true motility and that his so-
callecl flagella were artifacts of the staining method.
DELFT: WORKING WITH KLUYVER
After receiving his Chem. E. degree van Niel accepted a
position as assistant to Kluyver. His duties consisted! of caring
for a large, pure culture collection of bacteria, yeasts and
fungi; assisting undergraduates; and preparing demonstra-
tions for Kluyver's two lecture courses. One of the courses
dealt with the microbiology of water ant! sewage in which
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 393
iron ant! sulfur bacteria play a role. Since Kluyver was un-
familiar with these organisms, he assigned van Nie! the task
of learning to culture them so that he could provide material
for class demonstrations. To fulfill this assignment, van Nie!
read the publications of Winogradsky, Engelmann, Molisch,
and Bavenclamm on the colorless and purple sulfur bacteria
and concluded that fundamental disagreements concerning
the metabolism of these organisms neecled clarification.
Finding the purple bacteria "aesthetically pleasing," he con-
tinuec! studying them after the lecture demonstrations were
completed.
During the next two years, while continuing as Kluyver's
assistant, and later as conservator of the Institute, van Nie!
clemonstrated that purple sulfur bacteria could grow in glass-
stopperec! bottles completely filled with a mineral medium
containing sulfide and bicarbonate that were exposed to day-
light. (No growth occurred in the dark.) He also isolated pure
cultures of a Chromatium species and Thiosarcina rosea ant!
shower! that the yield of cells was proportional to the amount
of sulfide provided and much greater than that of colorless
aerobic sulfur bacteria in a similar medium.
These observations and the earlier demonstration that O2
is not proclucect by purple bacteria were interpreted (in ac-
corciance with Kluyver's theory that most metabolic reactions
are transfers of hydrogen between donor and acceptor mol-
ecules) to mean that purple sulfur bacteria carry out a novel
type of photosynthesis in which carbon dioxide is reclucec! by
hydrogen derived from hydrogen sulfide with the air! of en-
ergy from light. Mentioner! briefly in Kluyver and Donker's
treatise, "The Unity in Biochemistry,"i without supporting
evidences this interpretation was probably based on van Niel's
' A. J. Kluyver and H. J. L Donker, "Die Einheit in der Biochemie," Chemie der
Zelle und Gewebe, 13(1926): 134-90.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
work. Kluyver was not a coauthor of any of van Niel's early
papers on photosynthetic bacteria.
During this period Kluyver and van Nie! published two
papers: one clearing with a new type of yeast, Sporobolomyces
(thought on the basis of its mode of spore formation to be a
primitive basicliomycete), and another providing an expla-
nation for the unusual morphology of a spore-forming bac-
terium that grew in liquid! media as a tightly twisted, multi-
strancled rope.
While van Nie! expected to continue his study of purple
bacteria for his Ph.D. dissertation, he also developed, as a
side project, an effective methoc! for isolating propionic acid
bacteria from Swiss cheese. When Kluyver pointed out that
a study of this group would provide a faster path to the ctoc-
torate than a completion of his investigations of the sIow-
growing purple bacteria, van Nie! reluctantly agreed. He
spent the next two years, therefore, studying the biochemis-
try ant! taxonomy of the propionic acid bacteria. These bio-
chemical studies were the first to provide a quantitative pic-
ture of the products derived from the fermentations of
lactate, glycerol, glucose, and starch. His taxonomic studies
provided a sound basis for recognition of the species of
Propionibacteraum. Van Niel's dissertation, written in English,
was publisher! in 1928.
An unexpected byproduct of the study of the propionic
acid bacteria was the identification of ctiacety! as the com-
pounc] responsible for the characteristic aroma of high qual-
ity butter. Van Nie! noticed that cultures of one of his pro-
pionic acid bacteria grown on a glucose medium smeller! like
butter, then correlates} this oclor with the distinctive ability of
the organism to produce acety~methy~carbinol, an odorless
compound that is reaclily oxidizer! to diacety1, the actual
source of the aroma.
Van Nie} spent almost seven years in the Delft laboratory,
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 395
a stimulating period cluring which Kluyver was developing
his ideas about the importance of hydrogen-transfer reac-
tions in metabolism and the similarity of basic biochemical
reactions in clifferent organisms (the "unity in biochemistry"
theory). Van Nie] consiclerec! these ideas to be among the
most fundamental ant} fruitful of that era. Revering Kluyver
(whom he always referrer! to as "the Master"), as one of the
great scientists of the age, he was yet able at a later time to
point out some of Kluyver's errors in the analysis of specific
phenomena and his occasional excessive reliance on gener-
alizations lacking adequate experimental support (1959,1~.
PACIFIC GROVE: HOPKINS MARINE STATION
In late 1927, L. G. M. Baas-Becking of Stanford Univer-
sity came to Delft looking for a microbiologist to fill a position
at the new Jacques Loeb Laboratory at the Hopkins Marine
Station on the Monterey Peninsula. Greatly impressed by van
Niel's research accomplishments and his capacity for lucid
communication, he offered him an appointment as associate
professor. Put off by the reputed materialism of American
society, van Nie! was yet attracted by Becking's enthusiasm
for the new laboratory and encouraged by Kluyver de-
ciclec! to strike out on his own.
He arriver! in California at the ens] of December ~ 928 and
was immediately impressed by the charm of Carmel, the
beautiful site of the Jacques Loeb Laboratory, and the free-
dom from outside pressures that the Marine Station pro-
vided. In later years he could never be persua(lec! to leave
even to succeed Kluyver at the Delft laboratory.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS STUDIES
At the Hopkins Marine Station van Nie] continued his
studies of purple and green bacteria with emphasis on the
quantitative relations among substrates consumed and procl-
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
ucts formed. Progress was accelerates! by the finding that the
bacteria grew more rapidly under continuous artificial illu-
mination. He clemonstratec! that the green bacteria oxidized
hydrogen sulfide only as far as sulfur, whereas the purple
sulfur bacteria further oxiclized the sulfur to sulfate. Both
coupled these oxidations with an essentially stoichiometric
conversion of carbon dioxide to cellular materials in light-
clependent reactions. The nonsulfur bacteria (Athiorhoda-
ceace, which Molisch hac! grown aerobically on various or-
ganic compounds) were shown to develop anaerobically, but
only in the presence of carbon dioxicle and light. These ant!
other observations led van Nie! to conclude that photosyn-
thesis is essentially a light-dependent reaction in which hy-
drogen from a suitable oxidizable compound! reduces carbon
dioxide to cellular materials having the approximate com-
position of carbohydrate. This was expressed by the gener-
alized equation:
THEA + CO2 g > 2A + (CH2O) + H2O.
According to this formulation, H2O is the hydrogen donor
in green plant photosynthesis and is oxi(lizecl to O2, whereas
H2S or another oxidizable sulfur compound is the hydrogen
donor for purple and green sulfur bacteria, and the oxida-
tion product is sulfur or sulfate, depencling on the organism.
The nonsulfur purple bacteria that require suitable organic
compounds in addition to carbon clioxide for anaerobic
growth in light were presumed to use these compounds as
hydrogen donors ant! to oxidize them either partially or
completely. Later, the purple sulfur bacteria were also shown
to use some organic compounds in place of H2S in their pho-
tometabolism.
These observations ant! interpretations, the results of
some six years of investigation, were first presented at a small
meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists in Pacific Grove
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 397
at the end of 1929. Two years later van Nie! published a de-
tailecl account of the culture, morphology and physiology of
purple and green suIphur bacteria (193l,1), bringing his in-
terpretation of their metabolism and its implications for
green-plant photosynthesis to the attention of a wider aucli-
ence.
All of the purple sulfur bacteria he isolated were relatively
small organisms, belonging to what he called Chromatium,
Thiocystis, and Pseudomonas types. In material collected in
nature (and in some enrichment cultures) he observed a
number of larger forms but, despite numerous attempts, was
unsuccessful in isolating them. The cultivation of these or-
ganisms was not accomplished until many years later, when
N. Pfennig and H. G. SchIegel, both onetime associates of
van Niel, discovered that nutritional and environmental re-
quirements are more complex than had been previously rec-
ognizecl.2
Van Nie} published a large monograph covering many
years of work on the culture, general physiology, morphology
and classification of the nonsulfur purple and brown bacteria
in 1944 (1944,21. He classified over 150 strains isolated from
natural sources into six species in two genera Rhodospeudo-
monas and RhodospiraZlum. He clescribec! the morphology of
the organisms, their pigments, nutritional requirements, and
metabolism in the presence and absence of light. As in all his
publications, van Nie] also reviewed the historical back-
grounc! and current literature of the subject critically and
thoroughly.
Following the recognition of several types of photosyn-
thesis using different hydrogen donors, van Nie! began to
2 H. G. Schlegel and N. Pfennig, "Die Anreicherungskultur einiger Schwefelpur-
purbakterien." Archiv fur Mibrobiologie, 38(1961): 1-39, and N. Pfennig and K. D.
Lippert, "Uber das Vitamin Be Bedurfnisphototropher Schwefelbakterien." Archiv
fur Mibrobiologie, 55(1966):245-56.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
consider how radiant energy participates in these reactions.
There appeared! to be two possibilities, both consiclered by
earlier investigators: radiant energy could be used to activate
either carbon dioxicle or the hydrogen donor.
Initially, van Nie} and Muller (1931,2) were incliner! to
believe that light is used primarily to activate carbon dioxide,
a relatively stable compound and the common reactant in all
photosynthetic systems. But they die! not exclude the seconc!
possibility, that light also activated the hydrogen donor. In
this connection they notes! a correlation between the pres-
ence of nonchIorophyI] yellow ant! red pigments ant! the na-
ture of the hydrogen (loner used by different organisms.
These pigments, lacking in the green sulfur bacteria that uti-
lize the easily oxiclizable hydrogen sulfide, occur exclusively
. . . -
~n organisms up Zing water or sulfur, then thought to re-
quire a greater activation. This led van Nie! to undertake a
series of studies of the pigments of the purple and green
bacteria.
Van Nie} and Arnold (193S,1) developed a convenient
spectrophotometric method for determining the amount of
bacteriochIorophyI] in photosynthetic purple and brown bac-
teria uncler conditions avoiding interference by the rec! car-
otinoi(1 pigments. They also reported that van Nie! and E.
Wieclemann, working in A. Stoll's laboratory, had examined
the green pigments of six clifferent strains of purple and
brown bacteria ant! concluded that they were identical with
the chlorophyll of the purple sulfur bacterium, Thiocystis,
previously stucliect by H. Fischer.
Van Nie] and Smith (1935,2) began a study of the chem-
istry of the major red pigment of the nonsulfur purple bac-
terium, Rhodospirillum rubrum. By solvent extraction and re-
peated crystallization, they isolated about 100 milligrams of
an apparently homogeneous carotinoid they called "spirillo-
xanthin." Its empirical composition was found to be
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 413
During the early years, only a few students attended, but
as van Niel's reputation as a teacher spread, the class hack to
be limited, initially to eight, and later to fourteen students-
the number that conic! be accommociated in the small Marine
Station laboratory. The students were initially undergraduate
or graduate students from Stanford, but later a large pro-
portion came from other institutions. In 1950, for example,
only one of the thirteen students was from Stanford. The
others were from Washington University, Wisconsin, Michi-
gan, Missouri, California Institute of Technology, Connecti-
cut, Illinois, Cambridge, and the University of California at
Los Angeles. In addition there were eleven auditors of the
discussions and lectures who clid not do the experiments-
mostly postdoctoral fellows or established scientists who
wished to extend their background in general microbiology.
The lists of students and auditors who attended van Niel's
course between 1938 and 1962 reads like a Who's Who of bio-
logical scientists in the United States, with several, as well,
from other countries. Both clirectly, and indirectly through
his students, van Nie! exerted a powerful influence on teach-
ing and research in general microbiology for a generation.
Although his own research was concerned mainly with
photosynthetic bacteria, van Nie! was interested in the biol-
ogy and metabolism of many other groups of microorga-
nisms. He clicl not believe in directing the research of his
younger associates but rather encouraged them to follow
their own interests, some of which hac! been stimulated by
his lectures and personal discussions. As a consequence, the
range of phenomena investigated in his laboratory was ex-
ceedingly wide and included the culture and physiology of
blue-green algae and diatoms, nutritional and taxonomic
studies of plant-pathogenic bacteria, biological methane for-
mation, pteridine and carbohydrate metabolism of protozoa,
germination of mold spores, biology of caulobacteria, culti-
vation of free-living spirochetes, induction of fruiting bodies
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
in myxobacteria, decomposition of cellulose, the role of mi-
croorganisms in the foot! cycle of aquatic environments, ad-
aptation of bacteria to high salt concentrations, cultivation of
spirilIa anct colorless sulfur bacteria, bacterial fermentations,
thermophylic bacteria, denitrification, pyrimidine metabo-
lism, and the thermodynamics of living systems. To all stu-
dents van Nie} gave freely of his time, advice and enthusiasm,
drawing on his own extraordinary knowledge of the litera-
ture.
RETIREMENT
Following his retirement from the Marine Station in 1962,
van Nie! held a visiting professorship at the University of
California at Santa Cruz from 1964 to 1968, teaching part of
a freshman-level biology course in collaboration with K. V.
Thimann ant! L. Blinks.
After 1972, van Nie! gave up teaching and research en-
tirely and clisposec! of his scientific library ant! large collection
of reprints. Thereafter he lived quietly with his wife, Mimi,
in Carme! ant! spent his leisure reading classical and modern
literature and listening to classical music, which he greatly
enjoyed. He was often visited by former students who con-
tinued to be impressed by the warm hospitality of his home,
the charm of his personality, the breadth of his understancl-
ing, ant! the comprehensiveness of his memory.
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 415
HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS
DEGREES AND HONORARY DEGREES
1923 Chemical Engineering, Technical University, Delft
1928 D.Sci., Technical University, Delft
1946 D.Sci. (Honorary), Princeton University
1954 D.Sci. (Honorary), Rutgers University
1968 LL.D., University of California, Davis
FELLOWSHIPS AND PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
1925-1928 Conservator, Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Delft
1928-1935 Associate Professor of Microbiology, Stanford Uni-
versity, Hopkins Marine Station
1935 -1936 Rockefeller Foundation Fellow
1935-1946 Professor of Microbiology, Stanford University
1945 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
1946-1963 Herstein Professor of Biology, Stanford University
1955-1956 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
1963-1985 Herstein Professor, Emeritus, Stanford University
1964-1968 Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa
Cruz
AWARDS AND HONORS
1942 Stephen Hales Prize, American Society of Plant Physiology
1964 Emil Christian Hansen Medalist, Carlsberg Foundation of
Copenhagen
1964 National Medal of Science
1966 Charles F. Kettering Award, American Society of Plant
Physiology
1967 Rumford Medal, American Society of Arts and Sciences
1967 Honorary Volume, Archiv fur Mikrobiologie
1970 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Medal, Royal Netherlands
Academy of Sciences
LEARNED SOCIETIES
1945 National Academy of Sciences
1948 American Philosophical Society
1950 American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1952 Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership, American Society of
Plant Physiology
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416
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1954 President, American Society for Microbiology
1954 Corresponding Member, Academy of Sciences, Gottingen,
Germany
1958 American Academy of Microbiology
1963 Honorary Member, Societe Franchise de Microbiologie
1967 Honorary Member, Society of General Microbiology
1968 Honorary Member, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and
Letters
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 417
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1923
Uber die Beweglichkeit und das Vorkommen von Geisseln bei
einigen Sarcina Arten. Zentralbl. Bakteriol. Parasietenkd. In-
fektionskr. Hyg., Abt. II., 60:289-98.
1924
With A. J. Kluyver. Uber Spiegelbilder erzeugende Hefearten und
die neue Hefegattung Sporobolomyces. Zentralbl. Bakteriol. Par-
asitenkd. Infektionskr. Hyg., Abt. II., 63:1-20.
1925
With F. Visser't Hooft. Die fehlerhafte Anwendung biologischer
Agenzien in der organischen Chemie. Eine Warnung. Ber.
Dtsch. Chem. Ges., 58: 1606-10.
1926
With A. }. Kluyver. Uber Bacillus funicularis n.sp. nebst einigen Be-
merkungen uber Gallionella ferrug~nea Ehrenberg. Planta,
2:507-26.
1927
With A. ]. Kluyver. Sporoboloymces ein Basidiomyzet? Ann.
Mycol. Notitiam Sci. Mycol. Univ., 25:389-94.
Notiz uber die quantitativ Bestimmung von Diacetyl und Acetyl-
methylcarbinol. Biochem. Z., 187:472-78.
1928
The Propionic Acid Bacterza. (Doctoral Dissertation.) Haarlem, The
Netherlands: Uitgeverszaak]. W. Boissevain & Co.
1929
With A. J. Kluyver and H. G. Derx. De bacterien der roomverzur-
ing en het boteraroma. Verslag gewone Vergader. Afd. Na-
turrkd. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., 38:61-2.
With A. J. Kluyver and H. G. Derx. Uber das Butteraroma. Bio-
chem. Z., 210:234-51.
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418
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1930
Photosynthesis of bacteria. In: Contributions to Marine Biology, Stan-
ford: Stanford University Press, pp. 161-69.
1931
On the morphology and physiology of the purple and green sulfur
bacteria. Arch. Mikrobiol., 3:1-112.
With F. M. Muller. On the purple bacteria and their significance
, ~
for the study of photosynthesis. Rec. Trav. Bot. Neer., 28:245-
74.
1935
Photosynthesis of bacteria. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant.
Biol., 3: 138-50.
With J. A. C. Smith. Studies on the pigments of the purple bacteria.
I. On spirilloxanthin, a component of the pigment complex of
Spirillum rubrum. Arch. Mikrobiol., 6:219-29.
A note on the apparent absence of Azotobacter in soils. Arch. Mi-
krobiol., 6:215 -18.
1936
On the metabolism of the Thiorhodaceae. Arch. Mikrobiol.,
7:323-58.
With D. Spence. Bacterial decomposition of the rubber in Hevea
latex. Ind. Eng. Chem., 28:847-50.
Les photosyntheses bacteriennes. Bull. Assoc. Diplomes Microbiol.
Fac. Pharm. Nancy, 13:3-18.
With A. J. Kluyver. Prospects for a natural system of classification
of bacteria. Zentralbl. Bakteriol. Parasitenkd. Infektionskr.
Hyg. Abt. II, 94:369-403.
1937
The biochemistry of bacteria. Ann. Rev. Biochem., 6:595-615.
1938
With W. Arnold. The quantitative estimation of bacteriochloro-
phyll. Enzymologia, 5:244-50.
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CORNELIS BERNARDUS VAN NIEL 419
1939
A. l. Kluyver. Als mikrobioloog en als biochemikus. Chem.
Weekbl., 36: 1-109.
1940
The biochemistry of microorganisms: An approach to general and
comparative biochemistry. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. Publ., 14:106-
19.
1941
With E. H. Anderson. On the occurrence of fermentative assimi-
lation. I. Cell. Comp. Physiol., 17:49-56.
The bacterial photosyntheses and their importance for the general
problem of photosynthesis. Adv. Enzymol., 1 :263-328.
With R. Y. Stanier. The main outlines of bacterial classification. I.
Bacteriol., 42:437-66.
1942
With A. L. Cohen. On the metabolism of Candida albicans. ]. Cell.
Comp. Physiol., 20:95-112.
With S. Ruben, S. F. Carson, M. D. Kamen, and I. W. Foster. Ra-
dioactive carbon as an indicator of carbon dioxide utilization.
VIII. The role of carbon dioxide in cellular metabolism. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 28:8-15.
With I. O. Thomas, S. Rubin, and M. D. Kamen. Radioactive car-
bon as an indicator of carbon dioxide utilization. IX. The assim-
ilation of carbon dioxide by protozoa. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
USA,28:157-61.
1943
Biochemistry of microorganisms. Ann. Rev. Biochem., 12:551-86.
Biochemical problems of the chemo-autotrophic bacteria. Physiol.
Rev., 23:338-54.
1944
With A. Polgar and L. Zechmeister. Studies on the pigments of the
purple bacteria. II. A spectroscopic and stereochemical inves-
tigation of Spirilloxanthin. Arch. Biochem., 5:243-64.
The culture, general physiology, morphology, and classification of
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
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1
Representative terms from entire chapter:
van niel
