Doctoral Dissertation Research: Unifying Life: C.B. van Niel and the Ideals of the "Delft School" in Twentieth Century Biology

9311191莱施克生物学的历史传统上就是复杂有机体的历史。然而，到了20世纪中叶，生物学中一个重要组成部分的研究对象发生了根本性的转变：研究对象变成了微生物，特别是病毒和细菌，而不是更复杂的有机体。这种转变导致了分子生物学的产生，彻底改变了整个生物学学科。苏珊·B·斯帕特女士在约翰·莱施博士的指导下，正在所谓的微生物学“代尔夫特学派”中研究这种转变的来源之一。她专注于C.B.Van Niel(1897-1985)的论文研究，他在1929年成为斯坦福大学海洋生物站的教授时，将“代尔夫特学派”的理想带到了美国。范尼尔教授了三十多年的著名课程，在这门课程中，许多分子生物学发展的主要参与者都参加了课程。斯帕特正在评估这门课程对生物学在关键时期发展的影响，当时分子生物学刚刚形成一个独特的研究项目。她还研究了范尼尔和他的学生兼同事罗杰·斯坦尼尔在1962年提出的细胞生命基本类别的定义。***

9311191 Lesch The history of biology has traditionally been the history of complex organisms. By the mid-20th century, however, a radical shift had occurred in the object of study for a significant component within biology: the object of study became microorganisms, particularly viruses and bacteria rather than the more complex organisms. This transformation resulting in the creation of molecular biology revolutionized the whole discipline of biology. Ms. Susan B. Spath, working under the direction of Dr. John Lesch, is studying one of the sources of this transformation in the so-called "Delft School" of microbiology. She is focussing her dissertation research on C. B. van Niel (1897-1985), who brought the "Delft School" ideals to the United States when he became professor at Stanford University's marine biological station in 1929. Van Niel taught for over thirty years a celebrated course in which participated a remarkable number of the major players in the development of molecular biology. Ms. Spath is assessing the impact of this course on the way biology developed in the critical period when molecular biology was first forming as a distinct research program. She is also examining the definitions of the fundamental categories of cellular life as formulated by van Niel and his student and colleague Roger Stanier in 1962. ***