Albert Jan Kluyver

Prof Dr Ir Albert Jan Kluyver graduated from TU Delft (then the Delft Institute of Technology) in 1914, with a degree in Chemical Technology. He obtained his doctorate at the age of 26 with his thesis ‘Biochemical sugar determination’ (Biochemische suikerbepaling) under Professor Gerrit van Iterson, after working as an assistant in the Laboratory for Microscopic Anatomy from 1911 to 1916. He subsequently lived in the Dutch West Indies from 1916 to 1919, where he was an industrial consultant on the island of Java. After that he studied copra fibre preparation (coconut fibre) in Malacca and Ceylon and headed the laboratory of the NV Oliefabrieken Insulinde oil factory in Bandung. From 1920 until his death in 1956, Kluyver was a professor of microbiology at Delft University of Technology, succeeding Martinus W. Beijerinck. Kluyver was appointed a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in 1926.