Marinus Anton Donk
Dutch mycologist (1908-1972)
Marinus Anton Donk (14 August 1908 – 2 September 1972) was a Dutch mycologist. He specialized in the taxonomy and nomenclature of mushrooms. Rolf Singer wrote in his obituary that he was "one of the most outstanding figures of contemporary mycology."
Early life
Donk was born in Situbondo, East Java in 1908, and completed secondary school in The Hague, Netherlands. He studied biology at the University of Utrecht, starting in 1927. As a graduate student in mycology he completed the work for his 1931 "Revisie van de Nederlandse Heterobasidiomyceteae" (Revision of the Dutch Heterobasidiomycetes). He completed his studies and attained a doctorate degree in 1933 with the second part of his work, Revisie van de Nederlandse Heterobasidiomyceteae II. Afterwards he returned to Java, where he worked from 1934 to 1940 as a teacher, and, starting from 1941 as a curator in the herbarium of the Buitenzorg Botanical Garden. He was interned in a Japanese prison camp from 1942 to 1945. During his time there, he managed to culture yeast that grew in palm inflorescences in the camps; he used the yeast to ferment rice, which provided essential vitamins for the prisoners.
Career
Donk's main research area was on the taxonomy of the mushrooms, especially the Aphyllophorales and Heterobasidiomycetes. He was involved in the development of a modern system to classify the Aphyllophorales and influenced nomenclatural rules for mushrooms.
The public source identifies “Marinus Anton Donk” as dutch mycologist (1908-1972). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Marinus, Anton and Donk.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q449688. VIAF identifies the subject as 47291128. The Library of Congress control number is no97045920. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1972, 1927 and 1931.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marinus Anton Donk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.