Denis Garrett
Stephen Denis Garrett
Garrett spent most of his career at
Early life and education
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Magdalene_College_First_Court%2C_Cambridge%2C_UK_-_Diliff.jpg/220px-Magdalene_College_First_Court%2C_Cambridge%2C_UK_-_Diliff.jpg)
Denis Garrett was born in 1906 at Leiston, Suffolk, to Mary (née Marples), from a Sheffield tool-making family, and Stephen Garrett (1878–1915), a director in the family's agricultural machinery business in Leiston, Richard Garrett & Sons.[1][2][3] He was the eldest of four children.[1] His father was killed in action at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle during the First World War when he was eight, and his mother moved the family to Oxford, where her sister lived, and later to Eastbourne. Garrett attended the Dragon School in Oxford, and briefly Wellington College, from which he ran away, and Eastbourne College, where he became interested in plant biology, despite a lack of biology classes, as well as mathematics.[1][3]
He read
Career
On the recommendation of Brooks, Garrett took up a post as an assistant plant pathologist at the
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Department_of_Plant_Science%2C_Cambridge_University_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1333495.jpg/220px-Department_of_Plant_Science%2C_Cambridge_University_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1333495.jpg)
In 1936, he moved to the
In 1949, Garrett took up a lectureship in mycology at the University of Cambridge's school of botany (now the plant sciences department), where he remained for the rest of his career, rising to reader in botany (1961–71) and then professor of mycology (1971–73).[1][2] He was the head of the small but widely respected mycology sub-department (1952–73),[2][3] and also served as acting head of the botany school.[1] He became a fellow of Magdalene College in 1962. In 1963–64 he held a visiting professorship at Cairo University. He retired in 1973, remaining an emeritus professor, and despite failing health, continued to publish until 1984,[1] carrying out experiments in a laboratory at his home.[2]
He was the editor of the journals
Research and writings
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Take-all.jpg/220px-Take-all.jpg)
Garrett's research focused on plant
Much of his work focused on
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Armillaria_mellea%2C_Honey_Fungus%2C_UK_1.jpg/220px-Armillaria_mellea%2C_Honey_Fungus%2C_UK_1.jpg)
In 1950–60, Garrett worked mainly on
From 1960, he researched the utilisation of cellulose substrates under different conditions by a range of fungi that infect roots, finding wide variation,
His research contributed to understanding soil ecology, a field in which Garrett was an early investigator,[1] and his work has been acknowledged as the foundation of the field of soil-borne plant pathogen ecology.[8] He was the first to apply the ecological concepts developed for surface communities, such as succession, to the underground interplay between plant roots, soil fungi and other soil microorganisms,[1][5] an approach described as "innovative".[9] Sally E. Smith, one of his students, said that he "gave a real feel to the cold, dark, wet world below."[1] He published "influential" classifications of soil fungi in the 1950s, based on their ecological niche, defining root-inhabiting, root-infecting and soil-inhabiting groups.[1][2] In 1973, he published an essay on how pathogenic fungi infect and reproduce in the face of plant disease resistance, focusing on nutritional requirements, and later extended his ideas to include competition or antagonism. Although some researchers found these ideas valuable, this work was criticised by R. K. S. Wood as using terms such as "energy" so loosely as to make the work "almost meaningless".[1] He was an early supporter of exploiting antagonism for the biological control of plant diseases, for example in a 1963 presentation,[1][2][8] but warned that many applications were not practical.[1]
He was described by Peter J. Grubb, E. Anne Stow and S. Max Walters as having "an ability to extract from complex systems simple concepts that could be approached experimentally."[5]
Books
Garrett is described by J. W. Deacon as a "naturally gifted writer" whose "flair" and "flowing but precise style" render "even the most difficult concept easy to understand",[2] while R. C. Cooke criticises his "quaint and old-fashioned" writing.[10] The first of Garrett's four books, Root Disease Fungi (1944), draws together existing research on root-infecting pathogens, mainly by others, focusing on well-researched species that cause economically significant disease.[2][11] A contemporary review by G. Metcalfe describes it as "authoritative and very readable", praising its emphasis on practical information as well as its organisation of earlier work.[11] Deacon later describes it as "a tour de force in assembling and synthesizing all the then known information on effects of environmental factors on soilborne plant pathogens".[2] Subramanian describes it as "timely", stating that it sparked international research on the fungi causing root diseases.[3]
Biology of Root-infecting Fungi (1956) and Pathogenic Root-infecting Fungi (1970) review more-recent work by Garrett and others and expound his ideas;[2] Garrett writes in the first person and employs "parables" to make his points.[10] A contemporary review of Biology of Root-infecting Fungi by the mycologist John Webster praises its "holistic approach", and writes that it introduces "useful generalizations and new concepts" that elucidate "previously puzzling data", and that its "crystallization of ideas ... put the subject on a more sound theoretical basis", predicting that they will provide a basis for future experiments.[12] Cooke, writing in 1971, calls the earlier book highly influential, with "new and exciting ideas" that stimulated research by many other scientists in the field, and praises the follow-up for maintaining the focus on fungal activity and interactions in the natural environment, rather than in the laboratory.[10] Soil Fungi and Soil Fertility (1963) is an undergraduate introductory textbook.[2]
Personal life
On the boat returning from Australia in 1933 or 1934 Garrett met Jane Perkins, who was returning from New Zealand, and they married in 1934.[1][2][3] She was the daughter of the artist Christopher Perkins, known for his paintings set in New Zealand. Jane Garrett became a psychiatric social worker, rising to lead that department in Cambridge, and in retirement wrote non-fiction. The couple had three daughters.[1][2] He had a life-long interest in natural history, especially birds, and after his appointment in Cambridge became an avid and organised plant observer, keeping track of the species that he had observed locally and in Europe using a card index.[1][2]
Garrett was diagnosed with coeliac disease and diabetes in 1964, and in later life began to lose his sight and was disabled by diabetic neuropathy.[1] He died on 26 December 1989 at Cambridge.[1][3]
Awards and honours
Garrett was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (1967)[1] and of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1973);[3] he was also a fellow of the Institute of Biology (1964), an honorary fellow of the British Mycological Society (1975), and one of the first two honorary fellows of the British Society for Plant Pathology (1984).[1][6] An issue of the journal Plant Pathology was dedicated to him in commemoration of his eightieth birthday, and after his death, the British Society for Plant Pathology instituted an annual lecture in his memory.[8][13]
Selected publications
Books
- S. D. Garrett. Pathogenic Root-infecting Fungi (Cambridge University Press; 1970)[10]
- S. D. Garrett. Soil Fungi and Soil Fertility (ISBN 0-08-025507-8)[2]
- S. D. Garrett. Biology of Root-infecting Fungi (Cambridge University Press; 1956)[12][14]
- S. D. Garrett. Root Disease Fungi (Chronica Botanica/Wm. Dawson and Sons; 1944)[11]
Reviews, conference papers
- S. D. Garrett. "Toward biological control of soil-borne plant pathogens", in Ecology and Management of Soil-borne Plant Pathogens (K. F. Baker, W. C. Snyder, eds), pp. 4–17 (John Murray; 1965); originally presented in 1963
- S. D. Garrett (1952). "The soil fungi as a microcosm for ecologists", Science Progress 40: 436–450
- S. D. Garrett (1951). "Ecological groups of soil fungi: a survey of substrate relationships", New Phytologist 50: 149–166
Research paper
His highest-cited[b] research paper is:
- S. D. Garrett (1938). "Soil conditions and the take-all disease of wheat: III. Decomposition of the resting mycelium of Ophiobolus graminis in infected wheat stubble buried in the soil",
References
- ^ His friends and family called him Denis, but he was known as Stephen at his college.[1]
- ^ According to Google Scholar in a search on 10 February 2021
- ^ JSTOR 770025
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af J. W. Deacon (1992). "Stephen Denis Garrett: Pioneer leader in plant pathology", Annual Review of Phytopathology 30: 27–36
- ^ JSTOR 24094854
- ^
- ^ a b c d e f g Peter J. Grubb, E. Anne Stow, S. Max Walters (c. 2004). 100 Years of Plant Sciences in Cambridge: 1904–2004, pp. 14–15, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge (retrieved 9 February 2021)
- ^
- ^ "Happy New Year 2021 – 40 Years of the British Society for Plant Pathology" (1 January 2021), British Society for Plant Pathology (retrieved 9 February 2021)
- ^ a b c d R. J. Cook (1994). "Problems and progress in the biological control of wheat take-all", Plant Pathology 43: 429–437
- JSTOR 1514472
- ^
- ^
- ^
- ^ N. V. Hardwick. "50 Years of Plant Pathology: 1982–2001", British Society for Plant Pathology (retrieved 10 February 2021)
- ^ The Editors (1956). "Book Reviews: Biology of Root-Infecting Fungi. By S. D. Garrett.", Soil Science 82: 97