Cornelis Bernardus van Niel
| C. B. van Niel | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cornelius Bernardus van Niel November 4, 1897 Haarlem, Netherlands |
| Died | March 10, 1985 (aged 87) Carmel, California |
| Nationality | USA, Netherlands |
| Fields | Microbiology |
| Institutions | Hopkins Marine Station |
| Alma mater | TU Delft |
| Doctoral advisor | Albert Kluyver |
| Doctoral students | Roger Stanier |
| Known for | Chemistry of photosynthesis |
| Notable awards | National Medal of Science (1963) Leeuwenhoek Medal (1970) |
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Cornelius Bernardus (Kees) van Niel (November 4, 1897, Haarlem – March 10, 1985, Carmel, California) was a Dutch-American microbiologist. He introduced the study of general microbiology to the United States and made key discoveries explaining the chemistry of photosynthesis.
In 1923, Cornelius van Niel married Christina van Hemert, graduated in chemical engineering at Delft University and became an assistant to Albert Kluyver, who had initiated the field of comparative biochemistry. In 1928 he wrote his PhD 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.
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:
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.
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