Katherine Esau

German-American botanist (1898–1997)

Katherine Esau (3 April 1898 – 4 June 1997) was a pioneering German-American botanist who studied plant anatomy and the effects of viruses. Her books Plant Anatomy (1953, 1965, 2006) and Anatomy of Seed Plants (1960, 1977) are key texts.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Katherine Esau (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 15, 1898, died Jun 4, 1997.¹

About

In 1989, Esau received the National Medal of Science "In recognition of her distinguished service to the American community of plant biologists, and for the excellence of her pioneering research, both basic and applied, on plant structure and development, which has spanned more than six decades; for her superlative performance as an educator, in the classroom and through her books; for the encouragement and inspiration she has given to a legion of young, aspiring plant biologists; and for providing a special role model for women in science."

From Wikipedia’s article on Katherine Esau, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.²

Companies

Botanical Society of AmericaChair 1951 to 1952¹⁴

Early life and education

1932University of California, Berkeley Doctor of Philosophy^{3 4}
Date not recordedHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin³
Date not recordedUniversity of California, Davis³

Esau was born on 3 April 1898 in Ekaterinoslav, Russian Empire a family of Mennonites of German descent, so-called "Russian Mennonites". She attended a Mennonite Parish school prior to entering secondary school. 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.

Katherine's father, John Esau, was the mayor of Ekaterinoslav. The revolution placed the family at risk due to their wealth, position, and nationality. Esau was considered a "counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie". The family managed to escape by boarding a German troop train in Ekaterinoslav on 20 December 1918, reaching Berlin on 5 January 1919 after a two-week trip.

Although Berlin was still in conflict, Katherine became a student at the Berlin Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule (Agricultural College of Berlin). She studied farm management with Friedrich Aereboe and plant breeding with geneticist Erwin Baur.

In 1922, the Esau family moved to Reedley, California, a Mennonite community. Esau worked briefly as a housekeeper and cook for a family in Fresno. In 1923, she worked for a seed production ranch, raising and studying sugar beets in Oxnard, California. After that company failed, Esau worked for the Spreckels Sugar Company on sugar beet resistance to curly top virus.

In 1927, Spreckels was visited by Wilfred William Robbins, from the University Farm of the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture (now University of California, Davis), and Henry A. Jones of the Davis Division of Truck Crops. Esau showed them her beet fields and asked about the graduate program at Davis. Robbins accepted her and employed her as a graduate assistant in the Botany Division. Esau resumed her education at the University of California, Davis in 1928. Since Davis did not grant graduate degrees at that time, she officially registered for the Ph.D. program through the University of California Berkeley. Her doctoral committee were W.W. Robbins, (botanist and the chair), T.H. Goodspeed, cytologist, and T.E. Rawlins, plant pathologist. Esau was formally awarded a doctorate in 1931 which was granted by UC Berkeley in 1932. She was also elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in 1932.

Esau then joined the faculty in the new post of Junior Botanist in the Agricultural Experiment Station in the College of Agriculture. She taught at the University of California, Davis from 1932 to 1963. In 1963 she moved to University of California, Santa Barbara to better continue collaborative work with Vernon I. Cheadle.

Esau died on 4 June 1997 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.

From Wikipedia’s article on Katherine Esau (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: botanist, botanical collector.⁷

1963 to 1965Worked at University of California, Santa Barbara⁵
1951 to 1952Chair, Botanical Society of America⁶
1931 to 1943Worked at University of California, Davis⁵
Date not recordedWorked at University of California, Berkeley⁵

Personal life

BornApr 15, 1898, Dnipro⁸
DiedJun 4, 1997, Santa Barbara⁹
CitizenshipUnited States¹⁰
ResidenceMoscow, Berlin, Santa Barbara, Davis, United States¹¹

Awards

1989National Medal of Science^{12 13}
1940Guggenheim Fellowship¹²
Date not recordedFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences¹²

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

1
WikidataKatherine Esau on Wikidata
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WikipediaKatherine Esau on Wikipedia
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WikidataKatherine Esau: education, on Wikidata
4
Wikidataeducation, as reported by The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science
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WikidataKatherine Esau: Worked at University of California, Berkeley, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: Chair, Botanical Society of America, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: occupation, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: place of birth, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: place of death, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: citizenship, on Wikidata
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WikidataKatherine Esau: residence, on Wikidata
12
WikidataKatherine Esau: award, on Wikidata
13
Wikidataaward, as reported
14
WikidataBotanical Society of America, Chair