Jan Boeke

Jan Boeke (23 October 1874 – 12 September 1956) was a Dutch anatomist and neuro-histologist who worked at the University of Utrecht serving as Rector Magnificus in 1937 and in 1945 with a gap due to the German invasion in World War II.

[1] Boeke was born in Hengelo to Mennonite pastor Izak Herman and Sara Maria van Gelder.

Graduating in 1900 he worked with Hugo de Vries and then went to the marine research station in Naples under Professor Anton Dohrn to study embryology in Muraena helena.

While in Naples he met the Hungarian histologist István Apáthy who introduced him to the complexity of nerves and the problems involved in their study.

[5] His group also conduct grafts of tissue types from duck bills to their feet and vice versa to examine generation and regeneration of Grandry and Herbst corpuscles.