Van Niel's Course in Microbiology—a Sequel

Abstract

Several generations of biologists raved —some still do —about the summer course in microbiology that C.B van Niel devised and taught, beginning in 1930 and continuing for several decades. The article about van Niel's microbiology course at the Hopkins Marine Station by Susan Spath (ASM News, August 2004, p. 359) provides a rewarding overview of his impact during that formative era of microbiology. Indeed, her brief article should whet the appetite for her much more detailed account of that period in microbiology that is the basis of her 1999 graduate dissertation, “C. B. van Niel and the Culture of Microbiology.”