Edouard Van Beneden

Edouard Van Beneden
Edouard Van Beneden
Born	5 March 1846 Leuven
Died	28 April 1910 Liège
Nationality	Belgian
Known for	meiosis
Scientific career
Fields	embryologist
Institutions	University of Liège

Édouard Joseph Louis Marie Van Beneden (Leuven, 5 March 1846 – Liège, 28 April 1910), son of Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden, was a Belgian embryologist, cytologist and marine biologist. He was professor of zoology at the University of Liège. He contributed to cytogenetics by his works on the roundworm Ascaris. In this work he discovered how chromosomes organized meiosis (the production of gametes).

Van Beneden elucidated, together with Walther Flemming and Eduard Strasburger, the essential facts of mitosis, where, in contrast to meiosis, there is a qualitative and quantitative equality of chromosome distribution to daughter cells. (See karyotype).

Publications

• Édouard van Beneden Recherches sur la composition et la signification de l'œuf 1868 Full text available from Archive.org PDF

Father

Van Beneden's father, Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (1809–1894) was also a well-known biologist. He introduced two important terms into evolutionary biology and ecology: mutualism and commensalism.

References

• Hamoir, G (March 1992). "The discovery of meiosis by E. Van Beneden, a breakthrough in the morphological phase of heredity". Int. J. Dev. Biol. 36 (1): 9–15. PMID 1627480. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |laysummary=, and |laysource= (help)
• Hamoir, G (October 1986). "[Edouard Van Beneden, biologist and stoic]". Revue médicale de Liège. 41 (20): 779–85. PMID 3541105. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |laysummary=, and |laysource= (help)