Robert Earle Buchanan

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Robert Earle Buchanan (March 27, 1883, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – 1973, Ames, Iowa) was an American bacteriologist and a professor and administrator at Iowa State University. [1] He is known for his work on bacterial taxonomy.[2]

Biography[edit]

Buchanan grew up on a farm.[2] He graduated in 1904 with a B.S. and in 1906 with an M.S. from Iowa State College[3] (now named Iowa State University). He worked as an undergraduate as a student assistant to Louis Hermann Pammel, whom he accompanied on botanical surveys. He was from 1904 to 1906 as teaching assistant in bacteriology under Pammel.[1] In 1908 Buchanan received his Ph.D. in bacteriology from the University of Chicago.[1] His doctoral dissertation The Morphology of Bacillus Radicicola,[4] written under the supervision of Edwin O. Jordan, deals with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the nodules of a variety of legume species.[1] At Iowa State College, Buchanan was from 1908 to 1909 an associate professor and was appointed in 1909 a full professor.[3] He founded in 1910 the college's department of bacteriology and headed the department until his retirement in 1948.[2] Two important bacteriologists in the early history of the department are Max Levine (1889–1967) and Chester Hamlin Werkman (1893–1962) (who was Buchanan's doctoral student).[1] Buchanan was the dean of Iowa State's Graduate College from 1919 to 1948[2] and director of the Iowa Agriculture Experiment Station from 1933 to 1945.[1]

Buchanan was elected in 1913 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[5] In 1918 he was the president of the Society of American Bacteriologists (renamed in 1960 the American Society for Microbiology).[1] In 1935 he was the president of the Iowa Academy of Science.[3]

He married Estelle Denis Fogel in 1910.[3] Their son Joseph Hall Buchanan became a patent attorney and a brigadier-general.

Selected publications[edit]

Articles[edit]

  • Buchanan, R. E. (1918). "Life Phases in a Bacterial Culture". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 23 (2): 109–125. doi:10.1086/infdis/23.2.109. JSTOR 30084296.
  • Buchanan, R. E. (1917). "Studies in the Nomenclature and Classification of the Bacteria Ii. The Primary Subdivisions of the Schizomycetes". Journal of Bacteriology. 2 (2): 155–164. doi:10.1128/jb.2.2.155-164.1917. PMC 378699. PMID 16558735.
  • Winslow, C.-E. A.; Broadhurst, Jean; Buchanan, R. E.; Krumwiede, Charles; Rogers, L. A.; Smith, G. H. (1920). "The Families and Genera of the Bacteria Final Report of the Committee of the Society of American Bacteriologists on Characterization and Classification of Bacterial Types". Journal of Bacteriology. 5 (3): 191–229. doi:10.1128/jb.5.3.191-229.1920. PMC 378870. PMID 16558872.
  • Fulmer, Ellis I.; Buchanan, R. E. (1923). "Studies on Toxicity". Journal of General Physiology. 6 (1): 77–89. doi:10.1085/jgp.6.1.77. PMC 2140618. PMID 19872053.
  • Buchanan, R. E. (1955). "Taxonomy". Annual Review of Microbiology. 9: 1–20. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.09.100155.000245. PMID 13259458.
  • Buchanan, R. E. (1966). "History and Development of the American Type Culture Collection". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 41 (2): 101–104. doi:10.1086/404936. PMID 5946752. S2CID 32609060.

Books[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Singleton Jr., Rivers (1999). "Robert Earle Buchanan: An unappreciated scientist". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 72 (5): 329–339. PMC 2579024. PMID 11049164.
  2. ^ a b c d Skerman, V. B. D. (October 1973). "Robert Earle Buchanan 1883-1974". International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. 23 (4): 291–294. doi:10.1099/00207713-23-4-291.
  3. ^ a b c d Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Dictionary. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. p. 327.
  4. ^ Buchanan, Robert Earle (1908). The Morphology of Bacillus Radicicola. University of Chicago.
  5. ^ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  6. ^ International Plant Names Index.  R.E.Buchanan.