In
the 1930s-1940s, Winogradsky’s ecological microbiology
inspired a generation of soil scientists, microbiologists, and
agriculturalists. Selman Waksman applied Winogradsky’s
“direct ecological method” in his soil microbiology
research at Rutgers University. Later, at the Rockefeller Institute,
this approach led his student Rene Dubos to the surprising discovery
of antibiotics and a Nobel prize for Waksman. |