Katherine Esau

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Katherine Esau
Katherine Esau.jpg
Born3 April 1898
Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire
Died4 June 1997(1997-06-04) (aged 99)
Santa Barbara, California
NationalityGerman, American
Alma materUniversity of California, Davis
AwardsNational Medal of Science (1989)
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
ThesisSome pathological changes in the anatomy of leaves of the sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) affected by the curly-top disease (1931)

Katherine Esau (3 April 1898 – 4 June 1997) was a German-American botanist who received the National Medal of Science for her work on plant anatomy.[1]

Personal life and education[]

Esau was born on April 3, 1898 in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine) to a family of Mennonites of German descent, so-called "Russian Mennonites".[2] She began studying agriculture in Moscow, but after a year her family was prompted by the Bolshevik Revolution to move to Germany where she completed her studies at the Agricultural College of Berlin.[1][3] The Esau family moved to California in 1922, where Esau worked for the Spreckels Sugar Company on sugar beet resistance to curly top virus.[4] Esau graduated from Berkeley in 1932. She resumed her education at the University of California, Davis, where she achieved her doctorate in 1931,[1] joined the faculty, and remained until her retirement at age 67.[4]

Esau died on 4 June 1997 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.[5]

Career[]

Esau was a pioneering plant anatomist and her books Plant Anatomy (1953) and Anatomy of Seed Plants (1977) were key plant structural biology texts for four decades. Her early work in plant anatomy focused on the effect of viruses on plants, specifically on plant tissue and development.

Esau worked at the University of California, Davis as a teacher and later a professor of Botany. While teaching, she continued her research on viruses and specifically phloem, the food conducting tissue in plants. In the 1950s, she collaborated with botanist Vernon Cheadle on more phloem research. Her treatise The Phloem (1969) was published as Volume 5 of the Handbuch der Pflanzenanatomie. This volume has been recognized as the most important of the series and was a definitive source of information about phloem.[6] Ray Evert, one of Esau's graduate students, says: "The book Plant Anatomy brought to life what previously had seemed to me to be a rather dull subject. I was not the only one so affected. Plant Anatomy had an enormous impact worldwide, literally bringing about a revivification of the discipline."[7] However, Esau was unaffected by the recognition accorded her, and she told David Russell, who compiled her oral history, "I don't know how I happened to be elected [for the National Medal of Science]. I have no idea what impressed them about me."[8]

In 1963, she was promoted to full professor at Davis.[9]

After retiring from the University of California, Davis, she moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1965, and continued research well into her 90s, publishing a total of 162 articles and five books.[10]

When asked by Elga Wasserman to reflect on her education and career, Esau wrote in 1973 that scientific activities dominated her career and added, "I found ways of maintaining spiritual independence while adjusting myself to established policies. . . . I have never felt that my career was being affected by the fact that I am a woman."[4]In addition that, after being asked in 1992 if she saw herself as a pioneer woman in science, Esau replied, "This is such a funny thing. I never worried about being a woman. It never occurred to me that that was an important thing. I always thought that women could do just as well as men. Of course, the majority of women are not trained to think that way. They are trained to be homemakers. And I was not a homemaker."[11]

Recognition[]

She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949.[12]

In 1951 she was President of the Botanical Society of America.[1]

In 1956 the Botanical Society of America awarded her a Certificate of Merit in its Golden Jubilee celebrations.[1]

In 1957, she was the sixth woman elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[1]

In 1962 she was awarded an honorary degree by Mills College, Oakland.[1]

In 1989, President George Bush awarded Esau the National Medal of Science.[13]

Legacy[]

Many of Esau's publications are housed and available for loan from the Cornelius Herman Muller library at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration.

In memory of her contributions as a lecturer, author and scientist, the Katherine Esau Award is awarded to the graduate student who presents the best paper in structural and developmental biology at the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America.[14]

Esau established the Katherine Esau Fellowship Program in 1993.[15]

Works[]

  • Esau, Katherine (1953). Plant Anatomy. (2nd Edition 1965; 3rd ed. 2006). McGraw-Hill, New York.
  • Esau, Katherine (1961). Plants, Viruses, and Insects. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
  • Esau, Katherine (1969). The Phloem. (Handbuch der Pflanzenanatomie, Histologie Band 5, Teil 2). Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin.
  • Esau, Katherine (1977). Anatomy of Seed Plants, 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York, ISBN 0-471-24520-8

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Evert, Ray. "Katherine Esau". Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  2. ^ "Dr. Esau's family is Mennonite. Dr. Esau's great-grandfather Aron Esau immigrated to the Ukraine in 1804 from Prussia." Evert, Ray F. (October 1985) "Katherine Esau: address given by President-Elect Ray F. Evert, University of Wisconsin" Plant Science Bulletin 31(5):
  3. ^ "Women Pioneers in Plant Biology". American Society of Plant Biologists. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Wasserman, Elga (2000). The door in the dream: conversations with eminent women in science. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, Joseph Henry Press. pp. 33–34.
  5. ^ Freeman, Karen (18 June 1997). "Katherine Esau Is Dead at 99; A World Authority on Botany". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Pigg, Kathleen (2008). "Esau, Katherine". Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 20: 413–416.
  7. ^ "Remembering Katherine Esau". www-plb.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  8. ^ "Remembering Katherine Esau". www-plb.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  9. ^ Wasserman, Elga R. (2000). The door in the dream: conversations with eminent women in science. Joseph Henry Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-309-06568-2.
  10. ^ "Guide to the Katherine Esau Papers". University of California, Santa Barbara.
  11. ^ "Esau's Career as a Plant Anatomist | CCBER". www.ccber.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter E" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  13. ^ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details - NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov.
  14. ^ "The Katherine Esau Award". Botanical Society of America. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  15. ^ "Remembering Katherine Esau". www-plb.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2020.

Further reading[]

  • Evert, Ray F., Eichhorn, Susan E., Esau's Plant Anatomy: Meristems, Cells, and Tissues of the Plant Body: Their Structure, Function, and Development, John Wiley & Sons, 3rd ed. (2006), ISBN 0-470-04737-2
  • O'Hern, Elizabeth Moot (1985) "Katherine Esau" Profiles of Pioneer Women Scientists Acropolis Books, Washington, D.C. ISBN 0-87491-811-1
  • Stebbins, G.L. 1999. Katherine Esau (3 April 1898 – 4 June 1997). Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 143
  • Pigg, K.B. 2007. Katherine Esau. in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, N. Koertge ed. vol 2: 413-416, MacMillan, New York.

External links[]

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