Adam Prażmowski (microbiologist)

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Adam Prażmowski (born October 25, 1853 in Siedliska near Jasło , † September 20, 1920 in Kraków ) was a Polish microbiologist and botanist .

Life

At the age of ten, Prażmowski lost his father, who disappeared without a trace during the January uprising . The family's financial situation worsened as a result, so that he was forced to earn money as a schoolboy by giving tutoring. Thanks to a scholarship, in 1873, after having passed the Abitur examination in Przemyśl , he was able to study at the Higher Agricultural School in Dublany , which he graduated with honors in 1876. Another scholarship allowed him to continue his studies at the University of Leipzig until 1879 . He took natural science subjects, especially botany under August Schenk and Christian Luerssen . In 1980 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate and then returned to Dublany, where he worked from 1881 to 1882 as an assistant to the plant physiologist Emil Godlewskis (1847-1930). He then worked as a teacher of botany and agronomy at the Agricultural School in Czernihów . In 1893, he retired because of his poor health. In the same year Prażmowski co-founded the Trade Association of Agricultural Cooperatives ( Związek Handlowy Kółek Rolniczych ) in Kraków. He remained director of this organization until 1911. In addition, he resumed his scientific research activities around 1910. Godlewski let him use his laboratory at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. This granted him the license to teach microbiology and plant breeding in 1913 . In 1919 he was appointed professor. Prażmowski died in 1920 and was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery in Kraków.

plant

Adam Prażmowski was one of the first to study the systematics of bacteria , which he differentiated based on the development and germination of their spores . His work Historya rozwoju i morfologia prątka wąglikowego (German: History of the development and morphology of the anthrax bacillus ), published in 1884, was the first microbiological publication in the Polish language. Prażmowski recognized early on the symbiosis between butterflies and nodule bacteria and discovered in continuation of the work of Martinus Willem Beijerinck and Hermann Hellriegels that the root nodules enable these plants to bind free nitrogen from the air. He managed to induce nodule formation on peas with a pure culture of the nodule bacteria in the laboratory and to explain the course of the infection. With his work he contributed to the establishment of green manure to increase the fertility of nitrogen-poor soils.

Prażmowski was also active in the field of plant breeding . He set up the first test field in Galicia and worked there on the improvement of rye and wheat varieties .

Honors

Prażmowski was from 1893 a corresponding member of the Akademia Umiejętności .

Fonts (selection)

  • Investigations into the evolutionary history and fermentation effects of some types of bacteria , dissertation, Leipzig 1880.
  • Historya rozwoju i morfologia prątka wąglikowego (Bacillus anthracis Cohn) . In: Rozprawy i Sprawozdania z Posiedzeń Wydziału Matematyczno-Przyrodniczego Akademii Umiejętności 12, 1884, pp. 87–112.
  • The nature and biological meaning of the pea root nodules . In: Botanisches Centralblatt 39, 1889, pp. 356-362 ( online ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Catalog HINT , accessed on March 23, 2016
  2. ↑ Alexander Kossowicz: The agricultural and technical utilization of microorganisms (PDF; 1.15 MB). In: Writings of the Association for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge, Vienna 56, 1916, pp. 245–272.
  3. ↑ Article nodule bacteria in: Doris Freudig (Red.): Lexikon der Biologie . Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-8274-1736-8 .
personal data
SURNAME Prażmowski, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish microbiologist and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Siedliska near Jasło
DATE OF DEATH 20th September 1920
Place of death Krakow