Dutch bacteriologist and Professor of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
His parents were Johan Theodor Dinger (24 Aug 1858, Amsterdam – 6 September 1929, Hilversum) and Johanna Maria Francisca Gortmans (20 dec 1861, Amsterdam – 17 jul 1903, Amsterdam), who married 1 July 1886 at Amsterdam. He lost his mother in his early teens.
Dinger was raised and studied medicine in Amsterdam. His thesis was on shortsightedness (Bijdrage tot de kennis der schoolmyopie en der emmetropisatie, 1918, Amsterdam). His promotor was Willem Pieter Cornelis Zeeman.
After WW1 he became an Army doctor in The Dutch East Indies (Borneo). Because of deafness he returned to Amsterdam and studied tropical medicine under Prof W.A.P. Schüffner. Back in the Indies he became Professor in Bacteriology and head of the military laboratory of Batavia. With money of the Rockefeller Foundation he could set up epidemiological investigations on Salmonella Typhi in the surface water that explained the endemic occurrence of Typhoid fever in Batavia (Dinger, A. Marseille and J.W. Tesch, 1939).
On March 8 1942 the Dutch East Indies capitulated. Batavia was renamed to Jakarta. In September 1943 Dutch citizens in Indonesia were sent to Japanese prisons and concentration camps. Also Dinger was internalised to prison.
In 1947 Dinger succeeded professor Flu as Professor of Tropical Hygiene at Leiden. He published a lot about microbiology, co-founded the journal “Tropical and geographical medicine” and helped many students to graduate.
Dinger died at age 90 Jan 14 1983 at Oegstgeest
Personal
He met his wife during a trip to the Netherlands. On 24 May 1939 in Amsterdam he married Machtilda Nannette Stork, born 29 March 1904 at Amsterdam, died 31 July 1997 at Oegstgeest.
In the in memoriam he was described as good natured “sunny” person, an excellent teacher and prolific writer in his field and a clever researcher with sharp eyes for details.