1960 – 2002; technical Microbiology: catalysing the chemical industry

How to use bacterial enzymes in the production of amino acids, epoxides and other valuable components for the chemical industry was a key theme in the research by Hans Veldkamp – the first Professor of Technical Microbiology in Wageningen – and his successors Chris Bulder and Jan de Bont. Prof. Bulder focussed mainly on continuous and other fermentation technologies to study industrial microbial processes.

Furthermore, Jan de Bont obtained international credit for his work on Pseudomonads, and their use in applied biocatalysis that leads to the production of industrial building blocks.