Cornelis Johannes Marinkelle

Cornelis Johannes Marinkelle was a Dutch medical doctor and biologist, Ph.D. that contributed to taxonomy of insects, parasites, yeasts and mammals, describing and reporting several new living species and many species are named on his honour.

Born in July 1, 1925 in Vienna, Austria from Dutch parents and citizenship, and name after his father and grandfather homonimous liutenaut captain of the Dutch Royal Army, Lt Ct. Cornelis Johannes Marinkelle he did his BSc postgraduate studies in Biological Sciences. He obtained the title as Biologist in the University of Batavia (1950), Indonesia, as physician (medical doctor) from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands in 1956, and as Doctor of Medicine from the same university in 1959, and PhD from the University of Brussels, Belgium in 1960. He was a physician for The Hague from 1961-1962 and served as medical personnel in the Peace Corps for the Government of the Netherlands, with humanitarian and research missions at Universidad del Salvador, El Salvador in 1962. In 1963 he was appointed as professor at the, then recently established Universidad de los Andes. He had the chair as professor of parasitology, protozoology, entomology and zoonoses in the Department of Biological Sciences until 2011. He was the founder of the Research Center for Microbiology and Tropical Parasitology in Bogotá (Cimpat, Centro de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Tropical) and of the Museum of Natural History at the same institution. In 1997 he was awarded as emeritus professor. He was also advisor for the WHO in topics such as parasitology diseases, tropical medicine and health promotion in developing countries. He was also an avid collector of eggs as a skilled oologist, activity he did for more than 70 years and he donated all his collected specimens to build the Marinkelle Collection that received attention by popular media. Prof. Marinkelle died on January 18, 2012 in Bogotá .