Recent History of the Department of Biotechnology

The major part of the Department of Biotechnology is housed in the Kluyver Laboratory for Biotechnology. The history of the Kluyver Laboratory dates back to the end of the nineteenth century when Martinus Beijerinck was appointed the first professor of Microbiology in Delft. Information on the early years of the laboratory and the 'family tree' professors that have worked at the Kluyver laboratory eversince can be found here. The recent history of the department is hereby defined as the period dating back to the appointment of the senior currently still active (part-time since retirement) professor J.G Kuenen, and starts in 1980.

Organization
With respect to the organizational embedding of the department, two important years during this period are 1986 and 1997. In 1986 the 'Technische Hogeschool Delft' (Delft Polytechnic) obtains the status of 'Technische Universiteit Delft' (Delft Universtity of Technology). Eleven years later, the faculty of 'Scheikundige Technologie en Materiaalkunde' (Chemical Technology and Materials Science) of which the biotechnology groups form part, merges into the newly formed faculty of 'Technische Natuurwetenschappen' (Applied Sciences). This year marks the birth of the Department of Biotechnology that encompasses all research groups in the Kluyver Laboratory plus the Biocatalysis & Organic Chemistry group that resides in the Chemical Engineering building.

Science
The diagram below shows the scientific developments of the department from 1980 until the present.

Please click on the coloured bars for information on their respective academic and industrial backgrounds, and scientific interests.

Education
Until September 2006, the department of biotechnology has taught a number of courses in the B.Sc. and M.Sc. of the Chemical Technology/Bioprocess Technology curriculum. From 2006 onwards, this curriculum has dissolved into the new curriculum ‘Molecular Science and Technology’ (MST), which is offered in cooperation with Leiden University. The MST curriculum follows the successful example of ‘Life Science and Technology’ (LST), which started in September 1999 and was the first joint Delft-Leiden curriculum. The department of Biotechnology provides for the entire Delft contribution of the LST curriculum.
However, the cooperation with Leiden University is much older than that. As early as in the 1920s the two institutes exchanged students and cooperated in research projects on a regular basis. This contact was formalised by the creation of the joint venture Biotechnology Delft Leiden (BDL) which was founded in 1982 and ratified by the Minister of Science and Education in 1983. The main function of BDL was to promote collaboration in multdisciplinary research and education in biotechnology.
In January 1994 the Graduate Research School Biotechnological Sciences Delft Leiden BSDL was founded. As BDL was already functioning as a Graduate Research School in everything but its name, BSDL made a flying start. In this, the extensive postgraduate education programmes organized by the Foundation BSDL-EDU (Biotechnology Education Delft Leiden) were a major asset. BSDL was originally planned to be a joint venture of the Delft and Leiden Universities but during its formation, biotechnology groups from Wageningen Agricultural University joined the Graduate Research School.

Building
The oldest wing of the Kluyver Laboratory stems from 1916 and was considerably extended in the course of the 20th century. The more recent changes to the building predominantly concern a gradual modernization of the interior. The laboratory now features state-of-the-art laboratories suitable for bioprocess technology and life science research in all its facets (genomics, molecular microbiology, enzymology, metabolic engineering, bioprocess engineering, environmental biotechnology and downstream processing).

Spin-off companies
From 1980 until the present, eleven companies were founded by staff and students of the Department of Biotechnology. Please click on the coloured blocks in the graph below for details of the specific spin-off companies.