(1632–1723)
Scientist. Van Leeuwenhoek served as a minor civil servant in his native city Delft. He is the inventor of the microscope, with which he discovered microorganisms such as bacteria and spermatozoa. For half a century, he described his discoveries in hundreds of letters to the English Royal Society, to which he was introduced by his fellow townsman, physician Reinier de Graaf (1641–1673).
Historical Dictionary of the Netherlands. EdwART. 2012.