Edouard Joseph Marie Van Beneden (Leuven

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, 5 March 1846 – Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

, 28 April 1910), son of Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden

Pierre-Joseph van Beneden

Pierre-Joseph van Beneden was a Belgian zoologist and paleontologist.Born in Mechelen, Belgium, he studied medicine at the University of Louvain, and studied zoology in Paris under Georges Cuvier...

, was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 embryologist

Embryology

Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...

, cytologist

Cell biology

Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...

 and marine biologist

Marine biology

Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...

. He was professor of zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 at the University of Liège

University of Liège

The University of Liège , in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. Its official language is French.-History:...

. He contributed to cytogenetics

Cytogenetics

Cytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the cell, especially the chromosomes. It includes routine analysis of G-Banded chromosomes, other cytogenetic banding techniques, as well as molecular cytogenetics such as fluorescent in situ...

 by his works on the roundworm Ascaris

Ascaris

Ascaris is a genus of parasitic nematode worms known as the "giant intestinal roundworms". One species, A. suum, typically infects pigs, while another, A. lumbricoides, affects human populations, typically in sub-tropical and tropical areas with poor sanitation. A...

. In this work he discovered how chromosome

Chromosome

A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...

s organized meiosis

Meiosis

Meiosis is a special type of cell division necessary for sexual reproduction. The cells produced by meiosis are gametes or spores. The animals' gametes are called sperm and egg cells....

 (the production of gametes).

Van Beneden elucidated, together with Walther Flemming

Walther Flemming

Walther Flemming was a German biologist and a founder of cytogenetics.He was born in Sachsenberg near Schwerin as the fifth child and only son of the psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Flemming and his second wife, Auguste Winter...

 and Eduard Strasburger

Eduard Strasburger

Eduard Adolf Strasburger was a German professor who was one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century....

, the essential facts of mitosis

Mitosis

Mitosis is the process by which a eukaryotic cell separates the chromosomes in its cell nucleus into two identical sets, in two separate nuclei. It is generally followed immediately by cytokinesis, which divides the nuclei, cytoplasm, organelles and cell membrane into two cells containing roughly...

, where, in contrast to meiosis, there is a qualitative and quantitative equality of chromosome distribution to daughter cells. (See karyotype

Karyotype

A karyotype is the number and appearance of chromosomes in the nucleus of an eukaryotic cell. The term is also used for the complete set of chromosomes in a species, or an individual organism.p28...

)