34 Facts About Arthur Galston

Arthur W Galston was an American plant physiologist and bioethicist.

Arthur Galston identified riboflavin and other flavins as what are called phototropins, photoreceptor proteins for phototropism, challenging the prevailing view that carotenoids were responsible.

Arthur Galston became a bioethicist, and spoke out against such uses of science.

Arthur Galston was the youngest child of Hyman and Freda Arthur Galston.

Arthur Galston grew up in a Jewish family in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, impoverished during the Great Depression.

Arthur Galston played saxophone in jazz and swing bands to earn living expenses.

The University of Illinois offered Arthur Galston a teaching assistantship for graduate work, so he went to Champaign-Urbana to study botany and biochemistry.

Arthur Galston worked with plant physiologist Harry J Fuller and botanist Oswald Tippo.

Arthur Galston's research focused on finding a chemical means to make soybeans flower and fruit earlier, so that they could mature before the end of the growing season.

Arthur Galston discovered that 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid would speed up the flowering of soybeans.

Arthur Galston noted that in higher concentrations it would defoliate the soybeans by causing them to release ethylene.

In July 1944, Arthur Galston was drafted into the US Navy as an enlisted man.

Arthur Galston ultimately served as Natural Resources officer in Naval Military Government on Okinawa until his discharge in 1946.

Arthur Galston identified riboflavin as a photoreceptor involved in the bending of plants toward light.

In 1950 Arthur Galston accepted a Guggenheim Fellowship to spend a year working with Hugo Theorell at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Arthur Galston's supporters included Bonner and Frits Warmolt Went, both of whom were senior plant biology researchers at Caltech.

In 1955, Arthur Galston was offered a full professorship at Yale University by Oswald Tippo, chair of the botany department.

Arthur Galston accepted the offer, and taught at Yale from 1955 onwards.

At Yale, Arthur Galston continued to do research in the areas of auxin physiology, photobiology, plant hormones, protoplasts and polyamines.

At Yale, increasing amounts of Arthur Galston's time were spent in administrative roles.

Arthur Galston served as chair of the Departments of Botany and Biology, the university-wide Course of Study Committee, and the Committee on Teaching and Learning.

Arthur Galston continued to lecture and write after his retirement, in his second career as a bioethicist.

Arthur Galston was president of the Botanical Society of America and of the American Society of Plant Physiologists.

Arthur Galston authored more than 320 papers and several books on plant physiology, as well as co-editing two books on bioethics.

Arthur Galston was deeply affected by this development of his research.

Arthur Galston was clear about the devastating impact of their use on the environment, and warned of the likelihood that they were harmful to animals and humans as well as plants.

Arthur Galston visited Vietnam and China, viewing the environmental damage in Vietnam first-hand.

Arthur Galston taught bioethics to Yale undergraduates from 1977 to 2004.

Arthur Galston co-founded the National Senior Conservation Corps, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping older Americans to create positive environmental change and lead more sustainable lives.

In 1966, Arthur Galston successfully nominated Duke Ellington to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale.

The Duke received the honor in 1967, but Arthur Galston was unable to attend, and did not meet him until 1972.

Arthur Galston died of congestive heart failure on June 15,2008, in Hamden, Connecticut.

In 1942, Arthur Galston married Dale Judith Kuntz, whom he had met at Cornell University.

Arthur Galston was an advisor to US President Bill Clinton and is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.