Term: Duggar, Benjamin Minge 1872 - 1956

Definition: professor, botanist, author, discoverer of aureomycin, b. Gallion, Ala. He graduated from Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College (B.S., 1891), Alabama Polytechnic Institute (M.S., 1892), Harvard Univ. (B.A., 1894; M.A., 1895), and Cornell Univ. (Ph.D., 1898). He taught botany and plant physiology at various universities (1898-1927), and in 1927 came to the Univ. of Wisconsin as professor of plant physiology and economic botany, holding this position until his retirement to emeritus status in 1943. He was the author of Fungus Diseases of Plants (1909), the first English text on plant pathology, and also wrote numerous works on botany and plant physiology. At Wisconsin, Duggar did basic research on the physiology of fungi and the biological effects of radiation. Among the practical outgrowths of his pioneering studies were the commercial production of mushrooms, a means of combating root rot in cotton, and a method for deactivating the virus responsible for mosaic diseases in tobacco. After retiring from the university in 1943, Duggar became a research consultant for the Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.Y. (1944), and in this capacity discovered the antibiotic, aureomycin, for which he received many awards and honorary degrees. Who's Who in Amer., 27 (1952); Milwaukee journal, Sept. 11, 1956; N.Y. Times, Sept. 11, 1956; Univ. of Wis. Faculty Memorial, Document 1235, Nov. 5, 1956 (on file in the office of secretary of the faculty).