Katherine Esau was a pioneering German-American botanist who studied plant anatomy and the effects of viruses.
22 Facts About Katherine Esau
2.
Katherine Esau was born on 3 April 1898 in Ekaterinoslav, Russian Empire to a family of Mennonites of German descent, so-called "Russian Mennonites".
3.
Katherine Esau attended a Mennonite Parish school prior to entering secondary school.
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Katherine Esau began studying agriculture in 1916 at the Golitsin Women's Agricultural College in Moscow, but returned home at the end of her second semester due to the Bolshevik Revolution.
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Katherine Esau studied farm management with Friedrich Aereboe and plant breeding with geneticist Erwin Baur.
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In 1922, the Katherine Esau family moved to Reedley, California, a Mennonite community.
7.
Katherine Esau worked briefly as a housekeeper and cook for a family in Fresno.
8.
Katherine Esau showed them her beet fields and asked about the graduate program at Davis.
9.
Katherine Esau resumed her education at the University of California, Davis in 1928.
10.
Katherine Esau was formally awarded a doctorate in 1931 which was granted by UC Berkeley in 1932.
11.
Katherine Esau was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in 1932.
12.
Katherine Esau then joined the faculty in the new post of Junior Botanist in the Agricultural Experiment Station in the College of Agriculture.
13.
Katherine Esau taught at the University of California, Davis from 1932 to 1963.
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Katherine Esau died on 4 June 1997 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.
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Katherine Esau was a pioneering plant anatomist and her books Plant Anatomy and Anatomy of Seed Plants are considered "iconic texts" in plant structural biology.
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Katherine Esau soon discovered that the virus spread through the plants along the phloem.
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Katherine Esau began applying electron microscopy to her research in 1960.
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Katherine Esau continued research well into her 90s, publishing a total of 162 articles and five books.
19.
Katherine Esau's papers are held by the Department of Special Collections in the Davidson Library at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
20.
Katherine Esau was official mentor to only 15 doctoral students but her exceptional ability as a teacher was recognised and appreciated by many.
21.
Many of Katherine 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.
22.
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.