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

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

Articles

Books

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 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. 1 2 3 4 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. 1 2 3 4 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.
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