Robert James Cook, born in 1937, is an American plant pathologist at Washington State University best known for his work on soil-borne pathogens affecting wheat. He found that the take-all disease of wheat could be controlled by continuously planting wheat in the same soil, which eventually caused the soil itself to suppress the fungus that causes the disease. He held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and received the Wolf Prize in Agriculture in 2011.
Facts
Defining ContributionPlant pathologist at Washington State University who researched soil-borne pathogens of wheat roots. Showed that the take-all disease could be controlled by continuous wheat planting, as the soil built up natural suppression of the causative fungus. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. R. James Cook (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph, first sentence
Robert James Cook (born 1937) is an American phytopathologist (plant disease researcher).
Career section
One of his early findings was that the disease take-all could be controlled by continuously planting wheat, which eventually caused the soil to suppress the causative fungus.
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