Christine Buisman

Christine Buisman (1900 to 1936) was a Dutch phytopathologist who dedicated her short career to Dutch elm disease and the selection of resistant elm seedlings. The eldest of four children, she grew up in Leeuwarden, studied biology in Amsterdam, worked as an assistant at the Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures in Baarn under Johanna Westerdijk, and received a doctorate from Utrecht University in 1927 for work on root-rotting Phycomycetes. In 1927 she gave the final proof that Graphium ulmi was the causal agent of Dutch elm disease, ending a controversy among Dutch and German scientists that had run since 1922. She developed an inoculation method for screening large numbers of elm plants for resistance and in 1932 discovered the generative form of the fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi. The first resistant elm clone released in the Netherlands was named for her in 1937, the year after her death.