Erwin Frink Smith

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Erwin Frink Smith (21 January 1854 – 6 April 1927) was an American plant pathologist with the United States Department of Agriculture. He played an major role in demonstrating that bacteria could cause plant disease.[1][2][3][4]

Life and career

Smith was born in Gilbert Mills, near Fulton, New York. In 1870 he moved with his family to Michigan. In 1881 he co-authored a book on the flora of Michigan with Charles F. Wheeler.[5] In 1885 he published a book on water sanitation.

Soon after earning his 1886 bachelors degree from University of Michigan, he took a position as chief of Plant Pathology in Bureau of Plant Industry He earned his doctorate from Michigan in 1889. Throughout his career, he pursued the hypothesis that bacteria were significant causes of plant disease. Resistance in the field, most notably by Alfred Fischer, eventually gave way, culminating in his three-volume 1910 work Bacteria in Relation to Plant Diseases.

At a time when it was unusual to do so, Smith was known for hiring many women at the Bureau of Plant industry, including botanists Nellie A. Brown, Mary K. Bryan, Florence Hedges, Lucia McCulloch, and Agnes J. Quirk. Historian Margaret W. Rossiter cites this as an example of a harem effect.[6][7]

Smith died in Washington, D.C.

References

  1. ↑ Clinton, G.P. (March 1936). "EDWIN FRINK SMITH". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 70 (10): 575–578. JSTOR 20023193. 
  2. ↑ Jones, LR; Rand, FV (1928). "Erwin Frink Smith 1854-1927". Journal of Bacteriology 15 (1): iv.2–6. PMC 374975. PMID 16559291. 
  3. ↑ Campbell, C. Lee (1983). "Erwin Frink Smith—Pioneer Plant Pathologist". Annual Review of Phytopathology 21: 21–7. doi:10.1146/annurev.py.21.090183.000321. PMID 20735335. 
  4. ↑ "Erwin Frink Smith". Apsnet.org. Retrieved 2013-03-22. 
  5. ↑ "Erwin Frink Smith" in ARS National Academy of Science Members Charles Fay Wheeler (1842–1910) was a pharmacist and amateur botanist in Ionia, Michigan. He tutored Smith in botany when Smith was in high school.
  6. ↑ Margaret W. Rossiter, "Women Scientists in the United States Before 1920," American Scientist 62 (1974).
  7. ↑ Margaret W. Rossiter (1982). Women Scientists in America: struggles and strategies to 1940. Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0801825095

External links

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