Antonie van Leeuwenhoek is most widely credited with discovering microorganisms, through his detailed observations of bacteria and protozoa in the 1670s. Robert Hooke also contributed earlier by publishing drawings of microscopic fungi in 1665, so both are often mentioned in the story of this discovery.

Early discoverers

  • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), a Dutch lens maker, built powerful single-lens microscopes and was the first to see and describe bacteria and protozoa, which he called “animalcules.”
  • Robert Hooke (1635–1703), an English scientist, used a compound microscope and in his book Micrographia (1665) published the first illustration of a microorganism, a mould (microfungus).

Who gets the credit?

  • Many textbooks name Antonie van Leeuwenhoek as “the father of microbiology” and the first to discover microorganisms because he observed a wide range of living microbes, including bacteria, in the 1670s–1680s.
  • Historians also emphasize Robert Hooke for giving the first published depiction of a microorganism, so modern accounts often say that the existence of microscopic life was uncovered by both Hooke and van Leeuwenhoek between 1665 and 1683.

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