Lourens Gerhard Marinus Baas Becking

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Baas Becking (1946)

Lourens Gerhard Marinus Baas Becking (born January 4, 1895 in Deventer , † January 6, 1963 in Canberra ) was a Dutch botanist and microbiologist . His botanical-mycological author's abbreviation is “ Baas-Beck. ".

Life

Baas Becking was born as the son of the gardener Marinus Ludovicus Baas Becking (* May 25, 1844 in Zelhem; † December 4, 1904 in The Hague ) and his wife Anna Maria Helena Berkhout (* July 24, 1864 in Bovenkarspel ; † May 9, 1941 born in Bergen ). He initially attended school in The Hague and the higher civic school in Amersfoort . From 1913 he studied chemical technology for some time at the Technical University of Delft and from 1916 pursued a degree in biology at the University of Utrecht . Here he worked for a long time as an assistant to Frits Went and completed his doctoral examination in 1919. He then went to Campbell at Stanford University in California, where he also lectured and received his doctorate in philosophy with a study of the anatomical structure of the genus botrychium .

Returning to the Netherlands in 1919, he continued his studies in Utrecht and received his doctorate in natural sciences on October 11, 1919 with the subject of photosynthesis, radiation and vital phenomena cum laude. He then returned to Standford University, where he was made an assistant professor for economic botany and plant physiology in 1923 . In 1925 he was given a full professorship and from 1927 to 1929 also gave guest lectures in Leiden , Utrecht and at the University of Amsterdam . During his time in America he was made director of the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove , where he was primarily devoted to the study of plankton .

On October 4, 1930 he was appointed professor of botany at the University of Leiden , which task he began on January 28, 1931 with the inaugural speech Gaia of leven en aarde . As the successor to Willem Hendrik de Vriese , he was also the director of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden , which he thoroughly renovated during its phase. He had left some traces in Leiden, but he was less and less satisfied with the work there. So in 1939 he was looking for a new challenge. In 1939 he took over the management of the botanical garden in Bogor for one year . In April 1940 he returned to Leiden and actually wanted to return to Bogor . However, the Second World War prevented him from doing this when German troops marched into the Netherlands in May 1940. However, his dedication to his job and his still-residing family did not prevent him from making every attempt to achieve his goal.

After a first attempt to escape in 1940 had failed, he submitted his release from university operations, which was confirmed on May 30, 1942. He did not want to provide support for the new occupying regime under German rule. During a second attempt to escape, he was caught in 1944 and taken to a German prison camp near Siegburg . Here he dealt with typhus , among other things . After the camp was liberated in 1945, he returned to the Netherlands. Although he was offered his professorship again on September 4, 1945 after the war, he rather intended to devote himself to his botanical research and canceled the university. So he returned to Java in September 1945 , where his family lived the whole time. Here he found a job with the Red Cross and received many awards. However, the political conflicts on Java did not allow him to return to his old position.

This forced him to move to Nouméa in New Caledonia in 1948 . Here he served as Vice President of the Scientific Council of the South Pacific Commission. In 1951 he moved to Australia , where he worked at the Botanical Department of the University of Sydney . From 1953 he worked for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization , for which he carried out marine research in New South Wales . In 1958 he went to Canberra, where he researched mineral resources and in 1960 examined their industrial exploitation. Baas Becking devoted himself to several topics. These include the geobiology of bacteria. In this context, he expressed the thesis that everything is everywhere, but the environment chooses . This application to microbiology indicates that the metabolic properties of individuals are also dependent on their geographical environment. Baas Becking had been a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences since 1935 and in 1948 he became a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion .

family

Baas Becking was married twice. His first marriage was on June 16, 1919 in The Hague with Rabina Haverman († August 28, 1949 in Nouméa), daughter of Hendrik Johannes Haverman (* October 23, 1857 in Amsterdam; † August 11, 1928 in The Hague) and Carolina Birnie (* 1864; † November 5, 1933 in The Hague). There are children from the marriage. The two sons Jan Baas Becking and Dirk Baas Becking are known from these, as well as the daughter Daja Baas Becking, who married Teding van Berkhout on October 29, 1952 in Navua Fiji. After the death of his first wife, he married Johanna Louisa Maria Bombeeck on June 16, 1961. The marriage remained childless. .

Works (selection)

  • Preliminary statement regarding the diatom "epidemics" at Copalis Beach, Washington: And an analysis of diatom oil . 1927
  • Studies on growth: part I. The point binomial and its derivatives In: Stanford University publications. 1926
  • Studies on growth: Part II. Experimental data - application of the theory . In: Stanford University publications. University series. Biological sciences. 1926
  • The physical state of protoplasm In: Negotiations of the Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Afdeeling Natuurkunde . 1928, part 2
  • Geobiology: of Inleiding tot de Milieukunde . The Hague, 1934
  • Preliminary list of plants introduced into Tahiti In: South Pacific Commission. 1950
  • Hortus Academicus Lugduno-Batavus, 1587-1937 . 1938 (with H. Veendorp)

literature

  • VJ Koningsbergen: Levens report LGM Baas Becking. In: Jaarboek van de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen. 1962–1963, Amsterdam, pp. 369–375, ( Levens report online PDF )
  • Anton Quispel Lourens: GM Baas Becking (1895-1963), Inspirator for many (micro) biologist. ( Online PDF )
  • HCJ Oomen: Baas Becking, Lourens Gerhard Marinus (1895-1963) . In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. The Hague 2013
  • Rutger de Wit, Thierry Bouvier: Everything is everywhere, but the environment selects; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say? In: Environmental Microbiology. 2006, Vol. 8, Part 4, pp. 755-758 ( doi : 10.1111 / j.1462-2920.2006.01017.x )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baas-Becking, LGM (1894-1963) at the IPNI
  2. ↑ Album Promotorum der Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht 1815-1936 en Album Promotorum der veeartsenijkundige Hoogeschool 1918-1925. EJ Brill, Leiden, 1963, p. 239
personal data
SURNAME Becking, Lourens Gerhard Marinus Baas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baas-Beck. (botanical author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch botanist and microbiologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Deventer
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1963
Place of death Canberra