1. Charles Thom was an American microbiologist and mycologist.
25 Facts About Charles Thom
1. 2.
Charles Thom studied the microbiology of dairy products and soil fungi, and in particular researched the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium.
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Charles Thom's work influenced the establishment of standards for food handling and processing in the USA.
4.
Charles Thom pioneered the use of culture media to grow microorganisms, and, with food chemist James N Currie, developed a process to mass-produce citric acid using Aspergillus.
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Charles Thom was born in Minonk, Illinois in 1872, the fifth of six boys.
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Charles Thom was raised in a strongly religious household; his father was an elder in the Presbyterian church.
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Charles Thom upheld Presbyterian values throughout his life, kept active in church affairs, and became a staunch prohibitionist.
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Charles Thom earned a bachelor's degree from Lake Forest College in 1895.
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Charles Thom married Ethel Winifred Slater in 1906, with whom he had three children.
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Ethel Charles Thom died in October 1942, shortly before his retirement.
11.
Charles Thom died two years after Charlotte at his home in Port Jefferson, New York, on May 24,1956.
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In 1902, Thom went to study with George F Atkinson at Cornell University; two colleagues included Benjamin Duggar and Herbert Hice Whetzel, who both later became noted botanists.
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In 1914, Charles Thom became the Chief of the Microbiological Laboratory at the USDA Bureau of Chemistry, where his job was to study problems with the handling and processing of foods, and to enforce the Pure Food and Drug Act, a United States federal law that mandated federal inspection of food products.
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Charles Thom pioneered the technique of using defined, reproducible culture media to grow microorganisms; most of the taxa he described are still valid today.
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Together with Margaret B Church, Thom maintained collections of fungus cultures for the American Type Culture Collection, established in 1925.
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Charles Thom was a selfless and devoted scientist and public servant.
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Charles Thom held his job with the Bureau of Chemistry until 1927, when the position was abolished.
18.
Charles Thom was then appointed Principal Mycologist of the Division of Soil Microbiology for the newly created Bureau of Chemistry and Soils.
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In one of Charles Thom's important contributions to the field, he led the research group responsible for advances that enabled the control of cotton root rot, which at the time was a major problem in the southwestern United States.
20.
Charles Thom formally retired in 1942, although he remained active as a consultant and guest speaker until shortly before his death.
21.
Charles Thom was the US Delegate to the 1905 International Dairy Congress held in Paris, France.
22.
Charles Thom helped establish a graduate education program at the USDA.
23.
Charles Thom attended the 1935 International Soil Congress in Oxford, England and was Vice President of the 1939 International Microbiological Congress in New York.
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Charles Thom was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a charter member of the Mycological Society of America, and president of the Society of American Bacteriologists in 1940 and the Society of Industrial Microbiology in 1950.
25.
Charles Thom was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by Lake Forest College in 1936.