Victor Jacob Koningsberger

Victor Jacob Koningsberger (10 February 1895 – 28 February 1966) was a Dutch botanist and academic. Born in the Dutch East Indies, he completed his studies in Rotterdam and Utrecht, defending his doctoral dissertation – an exploration of tropism focusing on the influence of light on plant growth – in 1922. He subsequently spent a decade in the Indies administering centres for sugar cane experimentation before returning to the Netherlands in 1934 to replace his teacher Frits Went as Professor of Botany at Utrecht University. In this capacity, he continued to research tropism. He served as the rector of Utrecht University between 1952 and 1953.

Koningsberger was Chairman of the Royal Tropical Institute from 1951 through 1965, as well as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1948 until his death. For his contributions, he was inducted into the Orders of the Netherlands Lion and the Orange-Nassau. He has been commemorated with a series of lectures, as well as a namesake building in the Utrecht Science Park.