Roland Thaxter

Roland Thaxter
Born	August 28, 1858 (1858-08-28)
Died	April 22, 1932 (1932-04-23) (aged 73)

Roland Thaxter (August 28, 1858 – April 22, 1932) was an American mycologist, plant pathologist, botanist, and entomologist, renowned for his contribution to the insect parasitic fungi—Laboulbeniales. His college education was completed at Harvard, where he also dedicated his faithful forty years in mycological and botanical researches. The five-volume series of Laboulbeniales he completed laying a solid foundation on research of insect fungal parasites. His studies in Plant Pathology, though, a relatively short period in his career, has contributed a lot to this field as well.

Biography

Roland Thaxter was born in Newtonville, Massachusetts, 1858, a third and youngest child in the family.^[1] His parents were Levi Thaxter and Celia Thaxter. He married Mabel Gray Thaxter at 1887. Thaxter’s personality was influenced deeply by his literary family. His father was a lawyer and an authority who brought the works of the poet Robert Browning to the American publics. His mother, Celia Thaxter, was a distinguished poet most well-known for one of her book “An Island Garden”.^[2] In addition to the inheritance of his literary background, he was inspired by the nature in young age that fostered him an unusual character that both artistic and exquisite in his subsequent scientific works.

Education and Research Career

Roland Thaxter entered Harvard at 1878 and completed his degree of A.B. in 1882. At 1883, he attended the Harvard Medical School for his doctoral study in medicine. Though one year later, a two-year funding of Harris Fellowship awarded him that enable him to leave Medical School and joined the Graduate School of Art and Science, where he conducted the studies of Cryptogamic Botany under William Gilson Farlow. Dr. Farlow was an important mentor to Thaxter, revealing in their strong bonding on either Thaxter’s scientific works and private live.^[3] This switch marked as a watershed in Thaxter’s career.

He pursued the doctoral degree and served as an assistant in the meantime under Dr. Farlow during 1886 to 1888. During this period, he published an important Gymnosporangium paper, “On Certain. Cultures of Gymnosporangium with Notes on their Roesteliae”, in which he linked the relationship between Gymnosporangium and Roesteliae.^[4] At 1888, He received the degree of M.A. and Ph.D., with the thesis entitled “The Entomophthoraceae of the United States”, a monograph of this group of fungi.^[5] Through 1888 to 1891, he occupied a position in the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, being the first plant pathologist there.^[6] He was setting up third department in the station and named it “Mycology”.^[7] Despite of his brief time working in the station, plenty of valuable works in Phytopathology were carried out. He described the pathogen of potato scab (Oospora scabies),^[8] the mildew of lima beans (Phytophthora phaseoli),^[9] the onion smut (Urocystis cepulae),^[10] and pioneering the fungicide spraying work controlling fungal diseases.^[11]

In 1891, Dr. Thaxter accepted the call and returned to Harvard, in where he linked his interests in Entomology and Mycology and working on the insect parasitic fungi—Laboulbeniales. These works were latter published from 1896 to 1931 in five volume series. It was included 103 genera, approximate 1200 species, and 13 varieties.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} Significantly, there were over 3000 detailed and elegant pen-and-ink illustrations arranged in 166 plates, showing his meticulousness in science. In 1901, he was elected to the full Professor of Cryptogamic Botany. After the death of Dr. Farlow at 1919, he voluntarily retired and became Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator of the Farlow Herbarium, to focus on his own research.^[17]

Other Scientific contributions

In addition to the intensive studies on Laboulbeniales with the huge five series of monographs, Dr. Thaxter’s researches broadly covered the Entomology, Botany, Bacteriology (e.g. Myxobacteria), and other group of fungi like zygote fungi. Entomology was his early interest on which he published his first six research papers.^[18] His doctoral thesis, “Monograph of Entomophthoraceae”, made him the name on research of insect parasitic fungi.^[19] The Myxobacteriaceae, a new order of Schizomycetes, was isolated and established by Thaxter in 1892, based on their peculiar life stages and structural developments.^[20] In 1922, Thaxter published the research, “A revision of the Endogonaceae”, which was the first monograph of the family Endogonaceae. The morphology and ontological development of these genera: Endogone, Glaziella, Sclerocystis, and Sphaerocreas, were described and illustrated in detail.^[21]

Anecdotes

Thaxter got a label of “squirt gun botanist”, which may attribute to his introduction of spraying technique to the American agriculture.^[22] His fondness in science was the “pure” instead of the “practical” aspect of science. It was revealed in the letter he wrote to Dr. Farlow during his occupation in Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station:^[23] "looking back at my year's work with a sickish feeling when I balance my practical accomplishment with my cash recompense." Thaxter was a big traveler. He made several collecting tours among the Americas and Europe countries. The most extensive expedition for him occurred during his sabbatical year in 1905-1906. He spent a month sailed from Livepool, NY to Buenos Ayres, then went through Falkland Islands and Strait of Magellan to the southernmost of South America.^[24]

Honor and Rewards

Given his eminence in both of the Botany and Mycology, Thaxter was holding and honored for the membership of major American and European scientific societies.^[25] He was the President of the New England Botanical Club, the American Mycological Society, and the Botanical Society of America. He was also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, the Botanical Society of America, the American Phytopathological Society, the Boston Society of Natural History, American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences.^[26] In addition, he was honored the fellowship of the Advancement of Science and of the American and the Academy of Arts and Science. For the honors outside the U.S., he owned the foreign membership of the Russian Mycological Society, the Linnean Societies of London and Lyon, the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium, the Royal Academies of Sweden and Denmark, the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the Academy of Science of the Institute of France, the British Mycological Society, and the Deutsche Botanisch Gesellschaft.^[27] In recognition of his contribution on the works of Laboulbeniales, French Academy awarded him the Prix Desmazières.^[28]

References

External links

• Biographical memoir by G.P. Clinton
• Biography