Denis Garrett

Stephen Denis Garrett (1906 to 1989) was a British plant pathologist and mycologist who did pioneering work on soil-borne pathogens, root pathology and soil ecology, and was the first to apply ecological concepts to interactions in the soil. Born at Leiston, Suffolk, into the family of the agricultural machinery firm Richard Garrett and Sons, he spent most of his career at Rothamsted Experimental Station from 1936 to 1948 and at the University of Cambridge school of botany from 1949 to 1973, where he was professor of mycology. Much of his research used the take-all fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis as a model system, and he also studied Armillaria root rot of trees. He wrote four books, of which Root Disease Fungi (1944) and Biology of Root-infecting Fungi (1956) were the most influential, and he was president of the British Mycological Society.