13 Facts About Christine Buisman

In 1927, Buisman provided the final proof that Graphium ulmi was the causal agent of the disease, concluding the controversy which had raged among Dutch and German scientists since 1922.

Christine Buisman developed the inoculation method for screening large numbers of elm plants for resistance, and in 1932 discovered the generative form of the fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi.

Christine Buisman was the eldest of four children raised in a liberal and socially conscious family in Leeuwarden.

Christine Buisman completed her secondary education at the local gymnasium in 1919, after which she studied Biology in Amsterdam, her main interest at that time being marine flora.

The laboratory was accommodated in the leafy Villa Java alongside the Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures, where Christine Buisman worked as an assistant.

In 1927, Christine Buisman was awarded a doctorate by Utrecht University for work on root-rotting Phycomycetes.

Christine Buisman was charged with this two-year project, and part of the villa garden was duly planted with elm seedlings.

In 1929, Christine Buisman left the CBS for further study in Dahlem Berlin.

Christine Buisman seized the opportunity to apply for a fellowship to study the elms and elm diseases in the US, and by the next month she began her one year's study in Boston, with the main objective of determining whether Graphium ulmi was present in the US.

Christine Buisman studied other elm diseases, helped by donations of Ulmus americana seedlings from the US Department of Agriculture.

Christine Buisman recorded this research in a paper published in the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Vol.

Westerdijk invited Christine Buisman to accept the position of researcher at Baarn on her return in October 1930.

Christine Buisman was buried three days later at the hilltop cemetery 'Westerveld' at Driehuis, set in the dunes of the North Sea west of Amsterdam.