KLUYVER, ALBERT JAN (1888-1956)

Dutch microbiologist, biochemist, and botanist

Albert Jan Kluyver developed the first general model of cell metabolism in both aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms, based on the transfer of hydrogen atoms. He was a major exponent of the "Delft School" of classical microbiology in the tradition of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). Outside Delft, he also drew on the legacy of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), Robert Koch (1843–1910), and Sergei Nikolayevich Winogradsky (1856–1953).

Born in Breda, the Netherlands, on June 3, 1888, Kluyver was the son of a mathematician and engineer, Jan Cornelis Kluyver, and his wife, Marie, née Honingh. In 1910, he received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Delft University of Technology, but immediately shifted his focus toward botany and biochemistry, winning his doctorate in 1914 with a dissertation on the determinations of biochemical sugars under the tutelage of Gijsebertus van Iterson, professor of microscopic anatomy. In 1916, on van Iterson's recommendation, the Dutch government appointed Kluyver as an agricultural and biological consultant for the Dutch East Indies colonial administration.

In 1921, again on van Iterson's recommendation, Kluyver succeeded Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851–1931) as director of the microbiology laboratory at Delft, where he spent the rest of his career. He immediately acquired the most modern equipment and established high standards for both collegiality and research. The reorganized laboratory thrived. Kluyver's reputation soon attracted many excellent graduate students, such as Cornelius Bernardus van Niel (1897–1985), another chemical engineer. Van Niel received his doctorate under Kluyver with a dissertation on propionic acid bacteria in 1928 and was immediately offered an appointment at Stanford University.

In a landmark paper, "Eenheid en verscheidenheid in de stofwisseling der microben" [Unity and diversity in the metabolism of microorganisms] Chemische Weekblad, Kluyver examined the metabolic processes of oxidation and fermentation to conclude that, without bacteria and other microbes, all life would be impossible. Two years later he co-authored with his assistant, Hendrick Jean Louis Donker, another important paper, "Die Einheit in der Biochemie" [Unity in biochemistry] Chemie der Zelle und Gewebe, which asserted that all life forms are chemically interdependent because of their shared and symbiotic metabolic needs. He explained these findings further in The Chemical Activities of Microorganisms.

Kluyver had a knack for bringing out the best in his students. He often and fruitfully collaborated and co-published with them, maintaining professional relationships with them long after they left Delft. For example, with van Niel he co-wrote The Microbe's Contribution to Biology. A cheerful, friendly, popular man, he was widely and fondly eulogized when he died in Delft on May 14, 1956. Van Niel called him "The Father of Comparative Biochemistry."