Editing Martinus Beijerinck (section)

===Early life and education===
Born in [[Amsterdam]], Beijerinck studied at the Technical School of Delft, where he was awarded the degree of biology in 1872. He obtained his Doctor of Science degree from the [[University of Leiden]] in 1877.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Chung | first1 = K. T. | last2 = Ferris | first2 = D. H. | title = Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851–1931): Pioneer of General Microbiology | journal = ASM News | year = 1996 | volume = 62 | issue = 10 | pages = 539––543 | publisher = [[American Society For Microbiology]] | location = Washington, D.C. | url = http://asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000251/621096p539.pdf | access-date = 17 October 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120425032029/http://asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000251/621096p539.pdf | archive-date = 25 April 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

At the time, Delft, then a [[List of institutions using the term "institute of technology" or "polytechnic"|Polytechnic]], did not have the right to confer doctorates, so Leiden did this for them. He became a teacher in microbiology at the Agricultural School in Wageningen (now [[Wageningen University]]) and later at the ''Polytechnische Hogeschool Delft'' (Delft Polytechnic, currently [[Delft University of Technology]]) (from 1895). He established the Delft School of Microbiology. His studies of agricultural and industrial microbiology yielded fundamental discoveries in the field of [[biology]]. His achievements have been perhaps unfairly overshadowed by those of his contemporaries, [[Robert Koch]] and [[Louis Pasteur]], because unlike them, Beijerinck never actually studied human disease.

In 1877, he wrote his first notable research paper, discussing [[Gall|plant galls]]. The paper later became the basis for his doctoral dissertation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bos|first1=L.|date=29 March 1999 |title=Beijerinck's Work on Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Historical Context and Legacy |journal=Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences |volume=354|issue=1383|pages=675–685 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1999.0420|pmid=10212948|pmc=1692537}}</ref>

In 1885 he became a member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001421 |title=Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851 - 1931) |publisher=[[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]] |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref>