William Brown (plant pathologist)

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William Brown in 1945

William Brown

Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, where he created the plant pathology research school in the 1920s, becoming Britain's first professor of plant pathology in 1928, and heading the department of botany (1938–53). He was president of the Association of Applied Biologists and the British Mycological Society. He studied Botrytis cinerea, which causes grey mould in a variety of plants, and various Fusarium
species that attack apples.

Early life and education

Brown was born in 1888 at

Edinburgh University in 1904, obtaining an MA degree in mathematics (1908), having also studied physics, chemistry, geology and botany, and a BSc in petrology, invertebrate zoology, botany and plant physiology (1910), winning many medals for his work.[1][3][4] Also at Edinburgh at the time were the entomologist James Watson Munro and the mathematician Hyman Levy, later both at Imperial.[5]
: 172–173, 175 

Career

In 1910–12, Brown worked as a lecturer in plant physiology at Edinburgh's department of botany,

DSc degree from the University of London in 1916. That year he obtained a research assistant post at the Research Institute of Plant Physiology at Imperial College (1916–18),[1][2] which was interrupted by a brief stint at Oldbury near Birmingham, manufacturing horse serum.[1] He rose to research physiologist (1918–23), assistant professor of physiological pathology at Imperial College and reader at the University of London (1923–28), professor of plant pathology (1928–53) – Britain's earliest professorship in this discipline[1][3][4] – and then head of the department of botany (1938–53). Brown retired from Imperial in 1953, becoming an emeritus professor, and in 1954 held a visiting professorship at Cornell University in the United States. On his return he largely gave up scientific work but served as the assistant editor of the Journal of Horticultural Science until 1969.[1][2]

His earliest publications were in 1915. The basic research for which he is best known was carried out in 1912–28, and Brown subsequently concentrated on teaching and supervising research students.

Ronald K. S. Wood.[1][2][5]: 346, 542 [7][8]

Brown was elected a

John Innes Institute and the Plant Breeding Institute.[1]

Research

Grey mould on a strawberry; Brown researched how the causative agent Botrytis cinerea parasitises its plant hosts

The earliest strand of Brown's research was on the physiology of plant parasitism by fungi and the host–parasite interaction.

plasmolysed (flaccid) then it is less able to resist penetration.[1][3]

In the 1920s, Brown also studied basic fungal physiology in the laboratory, particularly fungal growth.[1][2] In experiments with various species of mould that spoil stored apples, he studied the effect on fungal germination and growth of factors including oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and temperature. He showed that high carbon dioxide and low temperature each separately inhibit germination and growth, but the greatest effect is achieved using both measures together. His results had obvious practical applications for fruit storage methods. He also showed that factors inhibiting fungal growth are most effective when what he termed the fungal "energy of growth" is low. This principle has wide applications to fungal behaviour in nature.[1][3][4] In 1924–28, Brown carried out extensive studies of growth in several species of Fusarium that attack apples (partly in collaboration with A. S. Horne), which at the time were among the most detailed studies of any fungal species. This research also uncovered major problems in the classification of the Fusarium genus, contributing to its reclassification in 1941.[1][3][4]

In the 1930s his research focus shifted to field studies of plant diseases, particularly those afflicting local market-garden produce, mainly lettuce but also potatoes,

sea kale and carnations.[1][2] With M. J. Smieton, he showed that pentachloronitrobenzene could protect lettuce against B. cinerea.[1] During the Second World War he researched crop plants, while the department also raised crops for food.[1][2] He also published and gave lectures in the 1950s and 1960s on the history of microbiology and mycology.[1]

Personal life

In 1921, Brown married Lucy Doris Allen (1895–1966), a botanist, biochemist and chemist with a degree from Bedford College, London, who was the daughter of a shipping agent. They had three daughters and a son; his eldest daughter Lucy M. Brown became an academic at the London School of Economics.[1][3] They lived in Battersea (1921–29), Windsor (1929–33) and Hanwell (1933–54), moving to Haddenham, Buckinghamshire in his retirement.[1] His recreations included gardening and reading Latin and Greek in the original.[1][3][4] After his wife's death, Brown lived with his daughter Lucy in London and then another daughter in Cheshire. He died in 1975, in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester.[2] His estate was valued at nearly £18,000.[4]

Selected publications

Reviews

Research papers

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 0080-4606
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hawker, Lilian E. (1975). "William Brown, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S. 1888–1975". Transactions of the British Mycological Society. 65 (2): 343–345. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  3. ^
    ISSN 0066-4286
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  4. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30864
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 9781860948183
    .
  6. ISSN 1876-4525
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  7. doi:10.1146/annurev.phyto.35.1.1
    . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  8. S2CID 220193669
    .
  9. ^ International Plant Names Index,  W.Br.
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