Scientists
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
lay-vuhn-hook
Also Known As Anton van Leeuwenhoek
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Dutch tradesman and self-taught microscopist who ground his own tiny, powerful single lenses from the 1670s onward, reaching magnifications well beyond the compound microscopes of his day. Using them he became the first person to observe and describe bacteria, protozoa, spermatozoa and red blood cells, founding the science of microbiology through roughly 560 letters he sent describing what he saw.
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FieldMicrobiology and microscopy 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Founded
Invented
Microscope, Instruments Built his own single-lens microscopes from the 1670s onward, reaching far higher magnification than the compound microscopes of his day, and became the first person to observe bacteria and protozoa; this achievement is separate from, and better documented than, the disputed 1590s compound-microscope claims.
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