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Home , Samuel Cate Prescott

PERSPECTIVES INTERNATIONAL (2004) 7:283-284 www.im.microbios.org

Benito Moreno In memory of David A.A. Professor Emeritus, Department of Hygiene and Food Mossel (1918-2004) Technology, University of León, Spain

Address for correspondence: Depto. de Higiene y Tecnología de los Alimentos Facultad de Veterinaria Campus de Vegazana Universidad de León 24071 León, Spain Tel. & Fax +34-987291284 E-mail: [email protected]

On August 30, 2004, Professor David A.A. Mossel passed International Committee on and Hy- away suddenly, after a normal working day. Despite his age, giene, and member of the International Commission on Mi- he had maintained his energy, vitality, and wide range of crobiological Specifications for (1962-1975). After his activities. He died working, as he would have probably retirement, as Emeritus Professor of the Universities of Lou- desired. David Alexander Antonius Mossel was born in 1918 vain and Utrecht, he continued his work as President of the in Amsterdam, where he attended Christiaan Eijkman Foundation for secondary school until 1936. He Medical Research, which is affiliat- studied Medicine at the University ed with the University of Utrecht. of Leiden (1936-1941) and Human There he trained post-graduate stu- at the University of dents in the field of food microbiol- Utrecht (1945-1949), obtaining his ogy. During this last period, he wrote Ph.D. in 1949 with the doctoral the- a teaching module on “ sis “ in food: its influence on Microbiology of Food and Drinking microorganisms”. He received a Water” for the International Distance Masters Degree in at Learning, Medical Sciences Edu- the University of Cambridge in cation for Public Health Science: 1948, working with Sir Graham Food and Drinking Water (Univer- Wilson and Maurice Ingram, and a sity of Hertfordshire, UK). Diploma in Water and Food Micro- His work received international biology at the Pasteur Institute in recognition, as reflected by several Paris and Lille in 1961, under the doctorates honoris causa awarded guidance of Professor Jacques to him in Medicine, Agronomic Monod (Paris) and Professor René Fig. 1. David A. A. Mossel (1918-2004). Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine Buttiaux (Lille). (the latter from the University of Among his academic positions, those most outstanding León), and he was an invited lecturer at the Office of Naval were: Full Professor of Food and Water Microbiology at the Research (), Massachusetts Institute of Technology Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, (Cambridge, MA), Queen’s University (Belfast, UK), and at (1969-1974), and at the Veterinary Faculty of the University the University of Wisconsin at River Falls. In , he of Utrecht, the Netherlands (1974-1989). As a researcher, he gave a guest lecture in memory of Samuel Cate Prescott and held executive positions in organizations associated with the William L. Underwood. As a visiting professor, he lectured International Union of Microbiological Societies: President and taught in almost fifty universities around the world. In (1976-1989) and honorary president (since 1989) of the Spanish-speaking countries, he was Honorary Visiting 284 INT. MICROBIOL. Vol. 7, 2004 MORENO

Professor at the University of San Marcos in Lima, Perú, and growth depends on certain factors, intrinsic (or dependent on at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria, Spain. He food itself, such as pH, aw and Eh) and extrinsic (or imposed was also Honorary Member of the British Society for from the outside, such as , humidity and atmos- Applied Bacteriology, the Institute of Food Science and phere composition) and Mossel very efficiently continued Technology of the United Kingdom, the Société Française de them. Currently, food industries take all these factors into Microbiologie, the American Public Health Association, and account in order to inhibit the growth of pathogens and of the Hungarian Institute of Food Science and Technology. He microorganisms causing food spoilage. also had a Diploma of the American Veterinary Epidemio- Mossel’s activities in seeking to improve to food hygiene logical Society and of the American College of Veterinary and public health also deserve to be mentioned. He proposed Preventive Medicine, and was Foreign Corresponding Mem- an active intervention system throughout the food chain, at ber of the Spanish Royal Academy of Veterinary Medicine. every link, to prevent food-borne diseases, instead of the tra- Professor Mossel was Editor-in-Chief of the Interna- ditional retrospective system, which consists of analyzing tional Journal of Food Microbiology and of the Acta Alimen- samples of the final products. This new approach, or integral taria of the Academy of Sciences of Budapest. In 1990, he strategy, for which Mossel invented the sonorous acronym became a member of the Editorial Board of the journal of the LISA (longitudinally integrated safety assurance), has been Spanish Society of Microbiology (Microbiología SEM and incorporated into European Union rules seeking to assure International Microbiology). He received several Dutch and “from the farm to the table”. Of great importance international awards, including Knight of the Netherlands’ were Mossel’s contributions to formulating new culture Lion, bestowed by the Queen of Holland, the Silver Medal of media, using Enterobacteriaceae as indicators and to the def- Utrecht University for academic merits, and the Commander inition of microbiological reference values or microbiologi- of the Order of Saint Silvester (Rome). cal limits. His studies on the latter were precursors of the cur- Mossel also took part in the Second World War. During rent procedures of risk assessment and the determination of those years of enormous amounts of suffering and death, he food safety objectives, which nowadays are issues of great developed an interest in food- and water-borne diarrheic dis- interest. eases, a subject to which he devoted a great part of his pro- I met David Mossel in 1977, on the occasion of the first fessional life. His more than 350 research articles, published scientific meeting on food microbiology of the Spanish in the most prestigious scientific journals, cover most aspects Society for Microbiology, which took place in Madrid. That of food microbiology: poisoning and human infections of ali- was the beginning of a close relationship both scientifically mentary origin, food microbial spoilage, public health, and personally. We coauthored a book on food microbiology, microbial taxonomy, analytical techniques in food microbiol- published in 1985, of which a second edition was released in ogy, new culture media, etc. He was a pioneer in food micro- 2003. I also spent a sabbatical at his in the Nether- biology and trained several generations of researchers. Along lands. He was a man with a strong personality—extroverted, with other outstanding scientists, such as Haines, Wilson, good-natured, and easily accessible, especially to the most Ingram, Hobbs and Buttiaux—among the Europeans—and humble. These features, together with his near-perfect know- Tanner, Dack and Frazier —among the Americans—, he con- ledge of several languages (apart from his native Dutch he tributed to developing the body of knowledge comprising spoke English, French, German and Spanish fluently) and his food microbiology. Before the efforts of these microbiolo- mastery in motivating his students, who followed him after gists (i.e. prior to 1935), this field consisted of only a few his classes, won him many disciples and admirers. His ener- routine laboratory analyses to monitor the presence of “coli- gy, vitality and enormous capacity for work were an inspira- forms” or coli-aerogenes bacteria and total plate counts of tion to all who knew him. aerobes. Mossel’s most outstanding contributions were in Mossel’s qualities enabled him to become a great contribu- food microbial ecology, mainly the study of factors that influ- tor to the birth, childhood and development, over more than fifty ence the growth of microorganisms in food, and microbial years, of food microbiology and to spread his message world- associations. Ingram had initiated studies demonstrating that wide. It is up to other investigators to follow the path he paved.

Translation by MARTA LEÓN-MONTAGUT INTERNATIONAL MICROBIOLOGY