Johannes Gijsbrecht Kuenen (born 9 December 1940, Heemstede

Heemstede

Heemstede is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland.-History :Heemstede formed around the Castle Heemstede that was built on the Spaarne River around 1286. Before 1296, Floris V, Count of Holland, granted Heemstede as a fiefdom to Reinier of Holy...

) is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 microbiologist

Microbiologist

A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...

 who is presently professor emeritus at the Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...

 and a visiting scientist at the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. His research is influenced by, and a contribution to, the scientific tradition of the "Delft School of Microbiology"

Gijs Kuenen studied at the University of Groningen

University of Groningen

The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...

, where he received both his Doctorandus

Doctorandus

Doctorandus is a Dutch academic title according to the pre-bachelor-master system. The title is acquired by passing the doctoraalexamen, traditionally a matriculation exam for admission to study at doctoral level....

 degree and in 1972 his Doctorate (PhD) under the supervision of Professor Dr. Hans Veldkamp. The title of his thesis was ‘‘Colourless sulphur bacteria from Dutch tidal mudflats’’. After a short post-doc at the University of California in Los Angeles (USA), he returned as a senior lecturer to Groningen. In 1980, he moved to Delft

Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

 to become the 4th Professor of Microbiology (succeeding M.W. Beijerinck and A.J. Kluyver) at Delft University of Technology. Kuenen's initial research interests were (the application of) bacteria involved in the natural sulfur cycle

Sulfur cycle

The sulfur cycle are the collection of processes by which sulfur moves to and from minerals and living systems. Such biogeochemical cycles are important in geology because they affect many minerals...

 and yeast

Yeast

Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...

 physiology and metabolism. His later interest in the (eco)physiology of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria has led a.o. to the discovery of the bacteria within the phylum planctomycetes

Planctomycetes

Planctomycetes are a phylum of aquatic bacteria and are found in samples of brackish, and marine and fresh water. They reproduce by budding. In structure, the organisms of this group are ovoid and have a holdfast, called the stalk, at the nonreproductive end that helps them to attach to each other...

 that perform the Anammox

Anammox

Anammox, an abbreviation for ANaerobic AMMonium OXidation, is a globally important microbial process of the nitrogen cycle . The bacteria mediating this process were identified in 1991, and at the time were a great surprise for the scientific community...

 process. In addition, his research has been focussed on (halo) alkaliphilic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria from soda lakes. Gijs Kuenen officially retired in 2005 but remains active in science.

Awards

In 2004 Gijs Kuenen became a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, In 2005 he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2006 he received the Jim Tiedje Award for his outstanding contribution to microbial ecology at the 11th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology in Vienna and in 2007 he was awarded the Procter & Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

For his contribution to the founding of the education Life Science and Technology (Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology , also known as TU Delft, is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands...

 and Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

) in 2005 he received an honorary membership of Study Association LIFE.

Named after Kuenen

One of the five known anammox genera, with the single member Kuenenia stuttgartiensis, has been named after Kuenen. The Kuenen lab had named the first discovered species Brocadia anammoxidans

Brocadia anammoxidans

"Candidatus Brocadia anammoxidans" is a bacterial member of the order Planctomycetes and therefore lacks peptidoglycan in its cell wall, has a compartmentalized cytoplasm....

, after the company Gist-Brocades (now DSM Gist), for which Kuenen did consulting work and in which wastewater the bacteria was discovered.