Antoni van Leeuwenhoek ( 1632 - 1723 )

Birth: Delft, Netherlands (24 October 1632) Death: Delft, Netherlands (26 August 1723) Profession: Civil servant Merchant Research Field: Natural sciences, microscopy Education: School at Warmond, near Leyden; apprenticed to a cloth merchant in Amsterdam (1648) Career: Shopkeeper in Delft; became Usher to the Aldermen of municipality of Delft (1660); visited the chalk hills of Gravesend and Rochester, Kent (1668); appointed Surveyor to the Court of Holland (1669); Chief Warden of Delft (1677); Wine Gauger (or Inspector of Weights and Measures) in Delft (1679); scientific life began circa 1671, when he constructed simple microscopes to inspect the quality of cloth, grinding some 550 lenses, the best of which were not surpassed until the nineteenth century; communicated his observations by letters to other scientists and amateurs (including 190 to the Royal Society); made his most important discovery in 1674, when he recognized the true nature of micro-organisms; with Malpighi and Grew, one of the founders of the study of plant anatomy; received visits from many eminent people including Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (FRS 1673) and James II (FRS 1665) Memberships: Foreign correspondent, Academie Royale des Sciences (1699) Medals: Silver medal from the Louvain College of Professors (1716) Membership: Fellow Election Date: 29/01/1680 Proposers: William Croone.