User:Equisetum/sandbox/Pieter Nieuwkoop

Pieter Dirk Nieuwkoop (July 17, 1917 - September 18 1996) was a Dutch embryologist and developmental biologist who studied the early embryonic development of amphibians and reptiles. He is noted for the discovery and description of the process of endomesoderm induction in the amphibian blastula as well as for producing the "Normal Tables of Xenopus Laevis (Daudin)", a monograph on Xenopus embryology which became a standard reference in the field.

Personal life and Career
Pieter Nieuwkoop was born in Enschede, the Netherlands, the second son of a secondary school teacher. He began his studies at the State University of Utrecht in 1934, gaining a BSc in 1937 and an MSc in 1940. He carried out his doctoral studies there under Chris P. Raven during the German occupation of the Netherlands, but was unable to graduate during the war as he opted to write his thesis in English. He graduated cum laude in July 1946.

From 1942-49 Nieuwkoop worked as a scientific assistant in the Department of Zoology at Utrecht. While holding this position he was appointed as deputy director of the Hubrecht Laboratories, Utrecht from September 1947. He acceded the full directorship in January 1953, following a year's leave, which he spent as a Rockefeller Fellow in Baltimore, Chicago and Woods Hole. In September 1959 he was appointed to a special Professor's chair in Experimental Embryology at Utrecht. He retired his directorship of the Hubrecht Laboratories in July 1980, followed by his professorship in 1984. In 1993 he was awarded the Ross Harrison Prize by the International Society of Developmental Biologists, recognizing his significant contributions to the field of developmental biology. He continued his scientific research at the Hubrecht Laboratories almost until his death in 1996.

Nieuwkoop married Miss H. C. M. Beukers, a primary school teacher, in December 1942. They had one son, Wauter, born June 1952 in Chicago, Illinois.

Publications
Over his career Nieuwkoop authored approximately seventy scientific articles, as well as four monographs, which are listed below.