James Arthur Prescott

James Arthur Prescott (1890 to 1987) was a British-born agricultural scientist who spent most of his career in Australia and was known for his work on soils. Born at Bolton in Lancashire, he took first class honours in science at the University of Manchester in 1911 and won the first postgraduate scholarship in agricultural science taken at Rothamsted. From 1916 to 1924 he worked for the Sultanic Agricultural Society of Egypt, publishing 13 papers including four on nitrogen in soil and the alkalinity of Egyptian soils. From 1924 he held the chair of agricultural chemistry at the University of Adelaide, and his CSIR bulletin on the soils of Australia in relation to vegetation and climate was the basis of his 1932 Doctor of Science. He chaired the CSIR Oenological Research Committee from 1938 to 1955, became a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1954, and the Australian Society of Soil Science named its J. A. Prescott Medal after him in 1971.