Personal_Views_of_BTI - Boyce Thompson Institute

PERSONAL VIEWS OF BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE
1974 - 2000
by
Leonard H. Weinstein and Richard C. Staples
March 2005
Preface
Originally, this period in BTI’s history was to be written by Dewayne C. Torgeson, scientist, Program
Director and Corporate Secretary. It was interrupted by his untimely death and we were asked to take
over the task in 2003. Other long-time colleagues were lost during this same period, Richard H. Mandl,
environmental scientist, Dorothy Reddington, Director of Development, and Colleen Sloan, Secretary and
Administrative Assistant for the Environmental Biology Program. We dedicate this history to them.
If this continuation of the McCallan history (“A Personalized History of Boyce Thompson Institute”, which
covered the years from dedication in 1924 to 1974), is not written in the traditional manner, it is because
the actual events that make up a history always have degrees of humor, irony and cynicism, as well as
points of view.
We wish to thank especially, Valleri Longcoy and Elizabeth Estabrook, who have been creatively helpful
and collegial. This should not diminish the value of the willing help also provided by John Dentes, a
critical review of a draft of the text by Alan Renwick and Bob Kohut, and other helpful support from Brian
Gollands and Carl Leopold.
Len Weinstein
Dick Staples
Boyce Thompson Institute
May 1, 2005
Colonel William Boyce Thompson
1869 - 1930
Colleen Sloan
Dorothy Reddington
Richard Mandl
Dewayne Torgeson
This history is dedicated in their memory with appreciation for their important
contributions to the Boyce Thompson Institute.
CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………3
The End of an Era……………………………………………………………………………....4
The Move to Cornell………………………………………………………………….…………5
Acquisition and Divestment of Land……………………...………………………………….17
The Stanfordville Farm
The BTI Home Campus and Lenoir
The Beaumont Texas Laboratory
The Grass Valley California Laboratory
The Nepera Park Farm
The Richard Wellman Years (1974-1980)………………………………………………..…25
The New Institute Building at Cornell University
International Programs
A Sea Change
The Roy Young Years (1980-1986)………………………………………………………….40
The Ralph Hardy Years (1986-1995)………………………………………………………..42
The Charles Arntzen Years (1995-2000)……………………………………………………51
The Daniel Klessig Years (2000-).....………………………………………………………..54
The Endowment………………………………………………………………….…………….55
Reunions………………………………………………………………………….…………….56
Selected Research Accomplishments………………………………………….……………56
Biological Control of Insects
Bioregulant Chemicals (Sponsored Research)
Environmental Biology
Estuarine Biology
Nitrogen Fixation
Plants and Human Health
Plant Production
Plant Stress
Plant Molecular Biology
Faculty Biographies…………………………………………………………………………..66
Photos
Appendix
Index
Introduction
In 1917, immediately prior to the Communist revolution, Colonel William Boyce
Thompson, a wealthy mining entrepreneur, visited Russia as part of a 20-person
mission appointed by the American Red Cross. It was one of President Wilson's
initiatives to bring peace to that region of the world. There, Colonel Thompson saw at
first hand the abject poverty and starvation of Russian peasants, and he became
convinced that Russia might be stabilized if the production of food and fiber could be
improved. In 1924, following the model of New York City's Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research, Colonel Thompson founded and endowed the Boyce Thompson
Institute for Plant Research with the objective "to study why and how plants grow, why
they languish or thrive, how their diseases may be conquered, and how their
development may be stimulated". Although endowed from its inception, the breadth and
scope of its research activities would not have been possible without outside support
from individuals, foundations, and government agencies. In 1975, S.E.A.
McCallan wrote “A Personalized History of Boyce Thompson Institute” that included the
Institute’s history from its founding on September 24,1924 to the period when we
planned the move from Yonkers to Ithaca. In 2003, the authors were asked to continue
the history of Boyce Thompson Institute from 1974 onward. We chose to cover the
period up to 2000, leaving the period beginning in the 21st century to a future “historian”.
There have been many changes in the Institute during its “rebirth” on the Cornell
University campus.
One of these changes is the fewer number of women staff
scientists (now called faculty). In the first 50 years, there were 28 women scientists
listed by McCallan as Senior Scientists, and even as early as 1924, at its founding,
there were nine women scientists listed on the staff. In 2000, there were also nine
women listed, two of whom were senior staff, the other seven research associates.
From 1975 through 2000, there has been only one tenure-track woman, but she was not
given tenure and left the Institute. A number of women scientists had distinguished
careers. Among the early senior staff, one must list Irene Dobroscky, a virologist who
was at the Institute in 1924. She studied the transmission of plant viruses (some of
which are known now to be phytoplasmas) by insects in L.O. Kunkel’s laboratory, where
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each scientist worked independently. Helen Purdy (Beale) was also a virologist
responsible for the precipitin reaction and she also published “Bibliography of Plant
Viruses and Index to Research”. Lela Barton was a preeminent seed physiologist and
was responsible for giving us “Bibliography of Seeds” and “Seeds: Their Preservation
and Longevity”, among many other contributions. Norma Pfeiffer was an eminent
taxonomist, classifying a number of plant families on the basis of megaspore
characteristics. Sophia Eckerson was an accomplished plant pathologist and virologist.
These are only a few of the women who contributed to the Institute’s reputation in the
early days of BTI. One hopes for a more realistic distribution of faculty in the future.
Since 1975, there has been a strong emphasis by the Institute on molecular genetics
leading to a reduction or elimination of other disciplines. By the end of 2000, it
appeared that programs for which the Institute has been renowned in the past would be
eliminated, in part because funding had become difficult to obtain for the more
“traditional” sciences. Today, its research program has become adapted to the
stimulating environment at Cornell, where it continues to change and to take advantage
of the sophisticated technology becoming available during the 21st century.
The End of an Era
From his appointment on September 1, 1949 until his retirement
on May 31, 1974, George L. McNew devoted all his energies to
making Boyce Thompson Institute a leader in the plant sciences,
developing strong programs in entomology, plant pathology
(including virology) and environmental biology. At the same time,
perhaps not consciously, he molded an institution that was tightlyknit and had a family aura. It is difficult to describe this feeling of
‘family’. Dr. McNew, and his wife Elizabeth, took a great interest
Dr. George McNew
in the Institute employees, from the maintenance workers to the
scientific staff, although some people felt that this interest was
excessive and overly paternal. The McNews showed their interest in several ways.
They entertained often at their beautiful home overlooking the Hudson River. Both Dr.
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and Mrs. McNew were concerned with the employees’ welfare.
In a financial
emergency, it was not unusual for Dr. McNew to make a personal loan or in a health
emergency; both of them were known to pitch in with necessary housekeeping and
cooking.
On May 6, 1974, the Annual Meeting of the BTI Board was convened at the Hilton Inn in
Tarrytown, NY, where the affiliation agreement with Cornell University was approved.
This was followed by a reception in Dr. McNew’s honor, attended by Board members,
senior staff and their wives. No Managing Director before or since McNew has
dedicated so much time and energy to the administration of BTI or demonstrated such
extreme concern for the scientific staff and other personnel. At the same Board meeting,
Dr. Richard H. Wellman was appointed to assume the position of Managing Director as
of June 1, 1974. Wellman had close ties to BTI. He was hired by S.E.A.McCallan, after
receiving his Ph.D. from Washington State University, as a plant pathology fellow in a
new Carbide and Carbon (later Union Carbide) project. Wellman was head of the
project until 1954, when he left for the New York office, where he eventually became
General Manager of the Chemicals and Plastics Group of Union Carbide. He joined the
Institute Research Advisory Committee in 1968 and was elected to the Board of
Directors in 1969.
The Move to Cornell
The desire that the Institute be associated with a university actually traces back to its
founding, when William Boyce Thompson had his vision of creating an institution that he
hoped would be to plant science what the Rockefeller Institute was to human and
animal science. As a start, he asked advice from a number of prominent scientists.
Among them was H.H. Whetzel, a professor of plant pathology at Cornell University,
who suggested that this new institute be located in association with a university,
preferably Cornell, but Thompson, although aware of the advantages of a university
affiliation, had already decided it would be built across the street from his mansion,
“Alder”, where he could observe its construction and operation. Little did he know that
Whetzel’s proposal would someday become a reality. Further details of the Institute’s
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founding years are described in S.E.A. McCallan’s “A Personalized History of Boyce
Thompson Institute” (1975).
In the 1950s, mild rumblings were heard from Dr. McNew and other staff members
(which for convenience only, we shall hereafter refer to as ‘faculty’). At that time, both
biological sciences and BTI were making great strides and there was a greater
realization that BTI was isolated from other research and academic institutions.
Although there were a few graduate students from Columbia, Rutgers, Fordham and
Cornell universities who pursued their thesis research projects at the Institute, there was
no day-to-day interaction with colleagues from other institutions with whom ideas could
be shared, discussed, developed and modified, or collaborative studies could be carried
out. Attendances at an occasional meeting was not sufficiently fulfilling, and talk of
moving BTI to a college or university became a frequent subject among the faculty and
administration. Indeed, the increased urbanization surrounding the institute, pollution
from motor vehicles and home heating (actually an advantage for the Environmental
Biology program which stressed the effects of air pollution on plant life!) were becoming
a serious problem. It was very difficult to modernize the building (because it was so well
constructed that any change was exceedingly costly). But it also became clear among
the administration that we would eventually have to seek another home.
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Aerial View of The Boyce Thompson Institute Building and Grounds in Yonkers, New
York. The property extended from the homes to the right of the photo,
along the trees at the top, to the home visible on the left.
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Despite occasional flirtations with moving, the first actual step in its relocation was
offered in 1973 by Dr. Roy Young, a former graduate student of Dr. McNew’s and Vice
President for Research at Oregon State University. Dr. Young began discussions with
McNew and members of the BTI Board and he interested OSU’s President McVicar, the
Oregon Governor, Tom McCall, and members of the Oregon State Legislature. They
were sufficiently interested that a bill was passed providing a sum of $6,750,000 to build
and equip a headquarters for the Institute on the OSU campus, and a formal invitation
was sent to BTI’s Chairman of the Board, William T. Smith. The Executive Committee
traveled to Oregon where they were feted for a couple of days and met with important
university and State officials. Smith took a straw poll of the Board members, which
turned out to be very favorable to a move to Oregon State and he initialed a
Memorandum of Agreement on May 15, 1973. This was confirmed in a letter from Dr.
McNew to Roy Young of May 17, 1973, but McNew’s bias toward Cornell and his use of
mild pressure in the negotiations became evident:
“After we completed the visit to the Campus (OSU), I believe every
member of our group was ready to accept Oregon as a future home for
BTI provided there were firm assurances that the building would be
provided and a suitable formal contract could be developed to implement
the brief Memorandum of Understanding [actually it was a Memorandum
of Agreement] upon that afternoon in Corvallis. Of course, there were two
of us who felt that Cornell certainly had an advantage in general prestige
and financial support for the project but we would not have insisted in
exploring these possibilities further if we had a firm plan at Oregon State.
The key people were definitely enthusiastic over what they saw in
Corvallis and were ready to firm up an agreement along the lines of the
Memorandum of Understanding as soon as the Board of Directors had
approved the basic concept.”
When the early negotiations with Oregon State became public, New York’s Lieutenant
Governor, Malcolm Wilson, a native of Yonkers, moved to keep the Institute in New
York State, and along with Chancellor Boyer of SUNY, convinced Governor Rockefeller
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to bring a bill before a special session of the Legislature in July that would provide a
“Biological laboratory, greenhouse facilities” on the Cornell campus. The bill was passed
in the Senate, but encountered difficulties in the Assembly because some from Ithaca
and some from the Yonkers area did not know what it was all about or did not want the
Institute to leave Yonkers. (There were also allegations in the State Assembly that BTI
was running an “exclusive and racist country club” in Stanfordville for BTI employees.
What they were actually referring to was a 400+-acre farm that had been acquired for
experimental purposes. At the behest of Dr. S.E.A. McCallan and others, a 1.3-acre
pond was constructed and a cottage was built using volunteer employee labor. This
cottage was designated for use by researchers and other employees for weekends or
even week-long vacations following a specific set of rules and guidelines. It was hardly
a country club, and certainly wasn’t racist; but it was a place where employees could go
for short stays or drive up for the day, and it was the site of the BTI Annual Picnic, an
extremely well-attended event that featured, in addition to lots of eating, swimming,
volleyball, softball, horseshoes, fishing and other activities. At any rate, the allegations
were somehow defused and the bill was passed under the able leadership of
Assemblywoman Constance Cook.
Following the invitations from both Oregon State and Cornell, there was a flurry of
activity.
Visits to OSU and Cornell were made by Secretary McCallan and the
Executive Committee; and by Alva App, Dewayne Torgeson and Leonard Weinstein
representing the Program Directors. Reports were made by all visitors to the Board of
Directors. The positive sentiment on the Board to accept the OSU offer did not translate
to the faculty, a great majority of whom favored Cornell.
When examined
dispassionately, Cornell appeared to be the superior choice. Some faculty, including
Leonard Weinstein, decided that if OSU were chosen, they would not make the move.
In Weinstein’s case, this had less to do with geographical than family reasons (aging
parents and in-laws). The tip-off that BTI was favoring a Cornell affiliation became
obvious in a letter from Dr. McNew to Miles Romney, the Vice Chancellor of the Oregon
State System of Higher Education on July 30, 1973, a paragraph of which follows:
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“In all honesty, I should advise you that Governor Rockefeller introduced
a bill into the special session of the New York State legislature on
Wednesday afternoon, July 25, upon recommendation of the State
University of New York, proposing Cornell University be provided with
$8,500,000 to build and furnish facilities for Boyce Thompson Institute
....... My latest advice is that the Senate passed the bill 54-5 but it is hung
up in the Assembly by our local representatives who do not want us to
leave Yonkers .... At the moment, Cornell expects the bill to pass but I
have no data one way or the other.”
And, as late as August 28, 1973, the Vice Chancellor of the Oregon State System of
Higher Education requested that the President of that organization approve a change in
the Affiliation Agreement with OSU. To make matters more cloudy, after approval by
the New York state legislature, the BTI Board reversed its earlier animus toward Cornell
and voted 16-0 to accept its offer and move the Institute to the Cornell campus. Dr.
McNew, a man of many words, and in a voice that sounds a bit neo-Victorian, discussed
the decision in a letter to Dr. Young dated September 14, 1973. This mea culpa is
given in its entirety below:
“As Dr. Wellman has advised you, the general sentiment at our Board
meeting on September 12 was to see if a satisfactory contract could be
developed with Cornell that would gain the approval of the SUNY Board.
The set of very definitive principles developed in negotiations between Dr.
Wellman and Dr. Palm [Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell]
and approved by officials at Cornell was sufficiently attractive to warrant
their reduction to legal language, something which could not be done
adequately earlier in the compressed time schedule imposed upon us. It
is impossible to predict what obstructions and frustrations will be
encountered in this process, but I concur with the Board that it had to be
done before a final decision could be made.
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“I was surprised to find that strong sentiment prevailed not to sign a
provisional agreement with Oregon State while we were seriously
negotiating with Cornell. Two members strongly objected to the morality
and possibly the legality of entering into such an arrangement in poor faith
and the others concurred in spite of Dr. Wellman’s and my explanation of
your and President McVicar’s viewpoint. I sincerely hope this has not
caused you any embarrassment because of the Emergency Board moving
its session up before our meeting date.
“The growing sentiment for Cornell, as I see it, come from many
considerations. The primary factor, of course, is that at long last they
have a definite proposal with money to back it up to implement their
suggestions to me of last October and their proposal of last December to
the Board. Our Board was deeply impressed that they willingly modified
their stand for complete consolidation to affiliation of two coordinated
agencies on campus and even went so far as to seek status of BTI as an
absolutely independent entity in its own facility provided by the State. The
administration at the College of Agriculture had actually proposed to the
State Department of Commerce and later to the State University that they
build and assign the building to BTI without formal affiliation with the
College, but this could not be legally done with State funds.
“Of course, Cornell had $8.5 million or $1.75 million more than you for
construction of facilities. This position of strength did not overwhelm us;
but they were in the process of accepting from the contractors on August
22 a veterinary research tower of 160,000 square feet constructed at a
cost of $8.4 million. We could see exactly what could be obtained from
their appropriation in constructing and equipping two thirds as much space
for BTI with appended greenhouses.
“With all due respect to your fine facilities in the Bioscience building, their
veterinary creation was out of this world in architectural design, tailored
usefulness for various purposes, versatility and capabilities of
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modification, so it could be essentially as good 50 years from now as today. If
any one thing swung some of us over to their column, it was this facility
which included a remarkable array of furnishings and equipment as part of
the construction cost. There were many supporting items such as a site
where our greenhouses and labs could be attached directly, a mass of
surrounding research activities within 100 yards in veterinary microbiology,
plant pathology, entomology, soils and nutrition and bioclimatic facilities
(which we can use gratis when desired), 24-hour service for our
environmental installations, convenience to the Mann Library, a free
shuttle bus service operating on a 15-minute schedule from our front door
to all points on campus and ready access to large nearby parking lots.
“Convenience to business contacts was most favorable with two flights in
each direction from the Ithaca airport (10 minutes from the proposed
laboratory site) to New York City (53 minutes), Cleveland (1-1/2 hours),
Pittsburgh (1 hour), Washington (1-1/2 hours) and Chicago (2-1/2 hours)
[Ah, for the good old days!!] with major nationwide flights from Syracuse
airport (70 minutes) and Elmira airport (95 minutes). Conferences in these
cities could be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. without overnight delay. The staff
preferences for Cornell undoubtedly had a strong bearing with Program
Directors, Senior Scientists, Research Associates and Post-doctoral
Fellows presenting an almost completely united front to the Board. While
several (Referring to a few faculty scientists and Board Members] would
have liked to see us in Oregon for personal reasons, they seemed to feel
the weight and strength of Cornell could not be denied as benefiting BTI.
“You should know and take pride in the reaction of everyone at BTI toward
OSU as it was presented to us. Our Executive Committee and the visiting
Program Directors were no less impressed than Dick Wellman and myself.
The evidence of dynamic growth and progressiveness everywhere on
campus was tremendous. The quality and scope of facilities and the
dedication of your staff were evident everywhere. I believe that the
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warmth and friendliness of your administration, deans and scientists will live in
our minds and hearts forever.
“No one should ever interpret the reverses on our Board as derogatory to
OSU or the energy, skill and dedication with which you, Dean Krause and
President McVicar presented your invitation and followed up in presenting
your case. Our Board feels that we were presented with two generous
and appealing alternatives from two of the most meritorious institutions in
our field of science. It is almost a flip of the coin as to which should
receive preference because one is fully established and progressing
constructively while the other is excitingly dynamic and alive with
possibilities for the future. Had we not been a foundation incorporated in
New York State, had the State political structure not shown such
determination to retain us in this State or had Cornell and the State
University of New York not been so perceptive in analyzing the worries
and needs of our Board, there is no question but that we would have
signed the agreement with OSU last Wednesday and probably broken off
negotiations with Cornell.
“I need not dwell on my personal frustrations during the past five months.
Regardless of my personal desires and the warmth of our personal
relations, I had to be guided entirely by what I believe to be to the best
interests of Boyce Thompson Institute. If I had done less, I would not be
worthy of the trust bestowed upon me by the BTI Board or the mutual
respect and friendship which prevail between the two of us. Dick and I
have debated item by item the considerations that have come before us
step by step. While not agreeing in all personal appraisals, we have
agreed decisively that we should be guided by what we see to be the most
practical in achieving the best posture possible for BTI and its long range
future and that personal considerations had to be ignored insofar as
possible. I pray you will understand it has not been easy for either of us.”
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Once the decision was made to move to Cornell, a Building Committee was formed,
consisting of Donald Melhop, Chairman, Richard Lankow, Richard Mandl, Alan Wood
and S.E.A. McCallan. Albany selected the architects, Ulrich Franzen and Associates.
The building, exclusive of the greenhouse, was to be 63,132 square feet, somewhat
larger than the building in Yonkers.
The move to Cornell was scheduled for 1974, but New York State’s lagging economy
postponed building construction and we all wondered when, and if, we would ever make
the move. Dave Cutting, a local businessman, community leader and President of the
Tompkins County Area Development Committee, was told by Arthur H. ‘Pete’ Peterson,
the Cornell treasurer, at a Citizen Savings Bank Board meeting that BTI was not coming
to Cornell after all and, because of the State’s financial problems, had decided to go to
Oregon. This rumor had only a passing relationship to the truth. What happened was
that there were members of the Board who felt strongly that Cornell had reneged on its
promise and that we should renegotiate with OSU. When Cutting heard the news from
Peterson, he went to see Raymond van Houtte, President of the County Trust Company
bank and a community leader. They immediately flew to New York City, apparently
under terrible weather conditions (so extreme that they weren’t confident that they
would survive another day) to speak with the Chairman of the New York State Dormitory
Board, to whom they asked the question: If we can raise the money for the building, will
you issue the construction bonds? Receiving a positive answer, they obtained pledges
for $9.4 million, $0.9 million more than required. Cornell University faculty and staff
pledged $1.5 million, local banks $3.5 million, regional banks $2.4 million and BTI $2
million. In the final tally, the construction bonds were oversubscribed and BTI was let
off the hook and was not required to invest any of its endowment funds. The bonds
were to pay an interest rate of 9% but, when issued, paid 8% and ended up being called
by the State in 2 years, much to the disappointment of the bond holders.
In preparation for the move, members of the Building Committee, administrators,
Program Directors, other scientists and key maintenance personnel made numerous
trips to Cornell to attend meetings of various kinds, to present talks to Cornell faculty,
staff and students about BTI, its history and goals for the future, and to look for housing,
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check school quality, neighborhoods, etc. Dewayne Torgeson especially made trips to
negotiate details of the Affiliation Agreement (see Appendix ix). Donald Mehlhop and
Richard Mandl were the two most involved with the building’s construction and they
attended many meetings with the architects and building contractors and subcontractors until the building was completed. As an aside, Don Mehlhop had been a
submarine commander in World War II and was an experienced leader of men (actually,
he and his submarine sat at the bottom of Tokyo harbor when Japan surrendered).
Dick Mandl was a faculty member in the Environmental Biology Program who had
remarkable natural talents for instrument design and construction basics. Mandl took
primary responsibility in making certain that the plant growth facility and scientific needs
were suitable. They made a strong team (although accompanied by occasional loud
disagreements) that helped to develop a building that was not only beautiful and awardwinning, but also functional, and that met, and continues to meet, the needs of the staff.
Scientists who made the move to Cornell were allowed to select and design their offices
and laboratories.
Years later, renovations were made because of changes in
equipment and style of furnishings, as new scientists arrived.
Building construction started in 1977, and by October 1978, nearly the entire scientific
staff, many technicians, the building superintendent and the head of the maintenance
department began moving from Yonkers into the new building. A Yonkers mover, the 7
Santini Brothers, was contracted to move all of us who chose to relocate in Ithaca.
There were few restrictions on what and how much we could move. Some people even
moved dozens of clay pots and lumber. For a few years after the move, 7 Santini
Brothers boxes were as common in the new building as cockroaches were in the old
one. Occasionally one still runs onto 7 Santini Brothers boxes around the Institute and
in many basements and attics.
Upon Col. Thompson’s death, the Institute was left a number of paintings from the
Thompson estate and most, if not all, of them could be found hanging in the building --in administrative offices, the library, the entrance foyer and in a number of scientists’
offices. Just prior to the move to Ithaca, Park Bernet, a New York auction house,
catalogued and made cost estimates of the paintings for auction. Len Weinstein was
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fond of a small still life (signed ‘Hurst’) in his office in an ornate gold frame. The
appraiser valued it at $300. Weinstein would have been allowed to buy it at that price,
but he decided that $300 was too much money for such a small painting. Later, it
fetched $8000 at auction, a foretelling of Weinstein’s future financial dealings
(divestments).
During trips before the move
and after our arrival, the
Cornell community warmly
welcomed us.
Somehow,
though, Cornell personnel,
realtors
and
the
Ithaca
community as a whole had
the impression that we were
being paid outrageously high
salaries.
In fact, before the
The Current Boyce Thompson Building
move, realtors often arrived in
Yonkers with photographs of homes available for purchase, invariably mansions and
accompanied by, “We understand this is the kind of home Institute people will be
looking for.” This, of course, was light years from the truth. One of the photographs
shown to Weinstein was of the mansion that is now Cornell President Lehman’s home.
After being revived, Weinstein said that he didn’t want to heat more than 15 rooms. As
it turned out, the Institute raised most salaries to conform generally to Cornell’s pay
scale. This may have been due partly to the wording regarding comparability in the
Affiliation Agreement with Cornell (see Appendices).
The first few months after the move were heady indeed. The excitement of being
affiliated with a university, let alone a great one, was exhilarating. The Environmental
Biology Program was especially welcomed because of its reputation as one of the best
and largest air pollution groups in the U.S., and because there was no equivalent group
at Cornell. Their experimental farm of 12 acres, just adjacent to Rt. 366, was set up and
ready for the summer following the move. Many BTI scientists were also invited to
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become adjunct professors of various departments, among which were Plant
Pathology, Natural Resources and Plant Biology. No one was invited to join Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology or Entomology. There were very few sour notes associated
with the move, but those that did present themselves were based on the exaggerated
salary story and complaints that SUNY turned over to us outsiders, a beautiful building
to occupy while so many other building at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
were old and substandard. This was true.
The dedication ceremony for the new building was held on April 24, 1979, in the Law
Auditorium at the School of Veterinary Medicine. At the time of the dedication, BTI’s
research was concentrated in five areas: biological nitrogen fixation, biological control of
insects, air pollution effects on agriculture and forestry, plant stress and [the
development of] bioregulant chemicals. On April 25-26, 1979, there was a Dedication
Symposium, “Linking Basic Research to Crop Improvement Programs in LessDeveloped Countries”, co-sponsored by Cornell University and partially supported by
the Ford Foundation. The program stated that it was “A celebration of affiliation with the
N.Y. State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University”. Richard
Staples organized and chaired the symposium, and the subjects were clearly selected
to be a template for the “new” directions of BTI under its new Managing Director,
Richard Wellman.
It did not take long before we noticed a discernible change in BTI’s reputation as
Cornell’s incandescent standing began to rub off on us. This is still true today.
Acquisition and Divestment of Land
As McCallan (1975) stated in his history of BTI:
“Mr. Searls, a rugged individual of the old school, was to become
something of a stormy petrel who was not satisfied with the status quo at
the Institute and wanted to shake things up for the better”.
Fred Searls, who liked to list himself as “Mining Engineer, 14 Wall Street, New York
City”, worked for Col. Thompson in mining explorations around the world and eventually
became President of Newmont Mining Corp., the organization founded by William
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Boyce Thompson. Searls often told stories about “fighting off bandits” during mineral
explorations in China, which, when told in full, would undoubtedly be far more
interesting than this history.
At McCallan’s second BTI annual meeting as a Director (in 1947):
“he [Searls] called the attention of the Directors to the ravages of beetles
and other insects to pine and other timber in the Northwest and desired to
know whether the Institute could save the situation. Dr. Crocker (then
Managing Director) did not take kindly to Searls’ suggestion and replied
‘that the U.S. Government was already spending huge sums for this
purpose’.....
Word filtered down to the staff that the new Member wanted the whole
Institute to work on ‘reforesting the Rocky Mountains’. Thus at this point,
Fred Searls became in the eyes of the staff something of a villain on the
Board. Little did we think that in 1953 he would become Chairman of the
Board.”
As Chairman of the Board, Searls was persistent in pushing the Institute toward a bark
beetle program. He also pressured the Institute into other things. For example, he
prodded the Institute into investigating, for his friend Bernard Baruch1, the value of
Cellular Therapy, a cult medical treatment to ensure perpetual youth begun in 1930 by a
Swiss physician, Paul Niehans. Earlier, Niehans had been involved in the infamous
transplantation of monkey glands for a similar purpose. ‘Graduates’ of the cellular
therapy program included Konrad Adenauer, Pope Pius XII, Gloria Swanson and many
other notables. (Winston Churchill applied but was turned down because of his
inveterate cigar smoking and drinking). Assigned by McNew to the “investigation” were
Walter Tulecke and Leonard Weinstein.
Although little was accomplished, they
attended several meetings in New York City of a cellular therapy group, met many
“interesting” people (including Wolfgang Goetze-Clarens, a disciple of Niehans’, who
was fawned over outrageously all that evening. The New York Times the next day
published a list of foreign doctors, including Goetze-Clarens who were caught falsifying
1
Baruch was a wealthy entrepreneur and advisor to many Presidents of both parties.
18
their medical exams. Some youth doctor!). It was not all a complete waste because
Tulecke and Weinstein ended up having Thanksgiving dinner
in South Carolina with Searls, Baruch and Baruch’s “nurse” (who was called “Navarro”)
not on the traditional Thursday but on the previous Tuesday!
Details of the
Weinstein/Tulecke escapade are not germane to this document, but they could be
considered adventures in the occult. As we departed for the airport, Baruch gave each
of us a bag of persimmons. It was Weinstein’s first (and last) persimmon and his only
Thanksgiving dinner with Bernard Baruch! Fortunately, the story of BTI’s involvement
with the founding youth doctor, Paul Niehans, and how BTI was able to extricate itself
from being further entangled in this activity, is a long story, but the “youth” doctors are
still in business.
The Stanfordville Farm
Although we were far from being a “forestry institute”, Dr. Clyde Chandler had been
carrying on a breeding program on larch at the Institute arboretum, located about a mile
from the main building. But in 1956, when the New York State Thruway Authority
condemned and purchased 52 acres of its best land, which included the nursery area,
the arboretum was doomed. BTI sold the remaining land for what seemed to be a
pittance, after which it changed hands several times, each sale at a progressively higher
price.
This may have been a portent of future Institute land dealings. The area
condemned by New York State is now the Yonkers toll booth area of the New York
State Thruway. The remaining property eventually became a Westchester County park.
In order to continue the larch breeding program, and perhaps for other reasons, the
Institute acquired a 441.5-acre farm in Stanfordville, Dutchess County, New York in
1959. Dr. Chandler’s larch seedlings were transplanted to a 17-acre parcel on the farm.
By diverting a stream and creative use of a bulldozer, a small lake of 1.3 acres was
formed. A cottage was built, ostensibly for the use of researchers, although the lake
and cottage became an employee benefit and the site of the annual Institute picnic.
Jerry Way, who supervised activities at the Yonkers arboretum moved to a house
nearby and took over everyday management of the farm. Later, when the New York
State legislature was debating a bill for funds to construct the building at Cornell for our
19
use, the farm was used to accuse BTI of running an exclusive and private ‘Country
Club’.
Annual picnic at Dutchess county farm. Left to right: Jane Beardo, Joan DeFato, Jill (Goldman) Mancini.
With the impending move to Cornell, the property was sold in December 1975 and
March 1976 for a total of $297,000. Contrary to most past and future BTI land dealings,
there was a net profit to the Institute of $193,800!!
The BTI Home Campus and Lenoir
At the Annual Meeting of Members of BTI on May 12, 1975, the move to Cornell
appeared to be more and more imminent and the Members spent most of their time
discussing the divestment of land: properties in Beaumont, Texas, Grass Valley,
California, Stanfordville, NY, and the Institute’s home campus, which now comprised a
parcel of about 130 acres, including the Hudson River Country Club (which surrounded
the Institute’s original campus of 7 acres on three sides), and was formerly restricted
20
(which meant no Jews, Blacks, Latinos and few Catholics) and ‘Lenoir’, an estate of
16 acres across North Broadway from the Institute and immediately north and adjacent
to the beautiful Thompson estate, ‘Alder’. ‘Lenoir’ and the Hudson River Country Club
were acquired when Dr. Orrin Wightman (who became the heir to the estate and
country club through marriage), died and the Institute exercised its right of first refusal
as had been agreed upon at an earlier date. The original acquisition of the property
seemed essential to the Institute’s future at that time, but it became a liability when the
real estate market turned sour and we had to pay taxes to the City of Yonkers for all but
a 40-acre parcel that was incorporated as an experimental farm and part of the main
campus. There were many suitors who wanted to continue the golf course and country
club, start a new university or build a shopping center, each of which failed because
they were not financially sound, were far beyond our capabilities or were vigorously
opposed by neighbors. (Even today, there is a move to tear down the original Institute
building and replace it with modern medical offices, a health club and, allegedly, a
Dunkin’ Donuts shop. Naturally, there is also an opposition group that wanted the
building to be declared a historic landmark home. The building will not be demolished,
but will not become a historic landmark.)
In the meantime, the U.S. economy went into a steep decline and there were few
serious customers for the land. Also, the city of Yonkers had changed the zoning of the
property to Industrial Park, which more than doubled the taxes.
With the initial
investment in the land of $2,960,000, taxes for several years and loss of interest on the
capital, the Institute became desperate to find a buyer. It was finally agreed to sell the
property to the Robert Martin Corporation, developers of executive parks. At the May
12, 1975 meeting, the Members authorized the Executive Committee to conduct
negotiations to sell the property for a price that most Members and Directors felt was
too low, but had to be accepted because time was short and there were no other
prospects. At the Executive Committee meeting of June 19, 1975, recognizing the poor
condition of the real estate market and the somewhat awkward location of the property,
the Committee voted nearly unanimously to sell the property (without the Lenoir estate)
for $2,300,000. Dr. McNew cast a negative vote stating that the price was much too low
and that we should continue to seek out purchasers. As an aside, one of us (LW) was a
21
close friend of the attorney for Robert Martin. He rarely spoke of anything associated
with his legal activities, but because of our friendship he told me that the Institute
lawyer, claiming that he was too busy to write the contract, asked him, the Robert Martin
lawyer, to write it, a monumental error in this kind of negotiation. After that, the lawyer
friend said, it was like “taking candy from a baby”. The ‘Lenoir’ property (a mansion and
16 acres of land overlooking the Hudson River) was sold to the County of Westchester
in 1977 for $504,000. These negotiations were not the last in the Institute’s policy of
divesting land at a large real or potential capital loss. In this case, considering the
original cost of acquiring the country club and Lenoir, the selling price, taxes on much of
the property for eight years and the lost interest from capital, a conservative estimate of
the loss to the Institute’s endowment was about $8,000,000.
The Beaumont, Texas Laboratory
Bark beetles were raising havoc with longleaf and loblolly pines in the South and the
Institute was asked by the Southern Forest Research Institute (a consortium of several
lumber companies) to establish a laboratory on 390 acres of low-lying land west of
Beaumont near the village of Sour Lake. Patrick Hughes, a remarkably versatile
entomologist, who retired from BTI in 2003, and Alan Renwick, an outstanding chemical
ecologist, were resident or part-time scientists there, with Jean Pierre Vité, who came to
BTI from Göttingen, Germany, as the overall director. Vité was a brilliant and dynamic
entomologist. The group found, among other discoveries, that the pheromones,
frontalin, trans-verbenol and verbenone were produced by three species of
Dendroctonus bark beetles and that synthetic samples of these compounds were useful
in concentrating the beetle attacks for exercising control measures.
As McCallan (1975) said, the Southern Forest Research Institute “....decided
to
dissolve and withdraw their support in September of 1974. Presumably they felt that the
major goals had been accomplished and they were not about to support long-range
basic research especially when the U.S. Forest Service was funding such......” The
Boyce Thompson Institute land and holdings were sold, and the sole resident scientist,
Patrick Hughes, was transferred to Grass Valley. According to contemporary sources,
the land was sold for a price far below its market value.
The Grass Valley Laboratory
22
As mentioned earlier, Fred Searls, Jr., the Chairman of the Boards of Newmont Mining
and of Boyce Thompson Institute was insistent that something be done about the
damage being caused to forests and shade trees by various species of bark beetles; the
estimated damage being about five times that caused by forest fires. Because it was
felt that a basic study of bark beetles and forest trees could not be accomplished in
greenhouse and laboratory studies, Mr. Searls proposed that the North Star Gold Mine
property, a tract of 660 acres south of Grass Valley, CA, be given to the Institute for
future studies. This was augmented by a gift of 20 acres and a house by Mr. James D.
Hague, and the purchase of two adjoining tracts lying along the southern boundary,
BTI Bark-beetle
laboratory
building at Grass
Valley, California
giving a total of 740 acres for research. Funding also came from the Margaret T. Biddle
Foundation (Margaret Biddle was the only Thompson child) and the Institute
endowment. Title to the property was acquired in December 1957. The director of the
laboratory (as well as the one in Beaumont, TX) was again Jean Pierre Vité. Alan
Renwick worked both there and at Beaumont, TX with Vité. Patrick Hughes also
worked there after being transferred from Beaumont.
The forest consisted mainly of ponderosa pines with some black oaks, the only
broadleaf species.
A summary of the research carried out and their trials and
tribulations has been summarized earlier (McCallan, 1975). A decision was made to
23
move the activities of the Grass Valley operation to Oregon State University. In 1977,
the Grass Valley property was under contract to Robinson Enterprises for $840,000.
Several Board Directors and scientists who had worked there protested this price. BTI
had been receiving about $100,000 per year in timber sales and another $100,000 per
year in sales of rock from the earlier mining activities, but the protests were to no avail
and the land was sold. This was another ‘feather’ in BTI’s land-dealing misadventures.
Despite the fact that there was no financial loss, because the land and buildings had
been donated to the Institute, there was a loss in what could have been received for the
property.
The Nepera Park Farm
From its early days until it was sold, the Institute’s farming activities took place at the
25-acre Nepera Park Farm, located east of the Hudson River Country Club boundary.
The farm had been used extensively by Percy W. Zimmerman and A.E. Hitchcock
during the period when they were actively studying rooting and other plant hormones. It
was also used for field-testing of pesticides and other miscellaneous activities. But its
greatest use was by the Environmental Biology Program for studying the effects of air
pollutants on plant growth, yield and quality. After the Institute acquired the Hudson
River Country Club property, the farm activities were moved from Nepera Park to a
somewhat larger tract behind the Institute building.
The Nepera Park Farm was then sold to the Gestetner Corporation. They, in turn, sold
the property to the Wilmorite Corporation, a large real estate development company.
Wilmorite, apparently feeling a downturn in the economy and not seeing an immediate
use for the property sold it to Consumer’s Union for a headquarters building. Thus
began a saga that led to a lawsuit against the Institute and culminated in a settlement
never made public. The story began when Consumer’s Union, in considering the
purchase of the property from Wilmorite, insisted that it must be a pristine,
uncontaminated parcel. Wilmorite contracted with an environmental consulting firm to
take soil samples for wide-spectrum analysis. Traces of chlordane were found in
several cores, particularly in one. Concerned that they might lose the sale, Wilmorite
had the areas where chlordane was found excavated and sent the potentially
contaminated soil to a special incinerator where anything organic would be
24
decomposed. Wilmorite then asserted that the problem was caused by BTI and filed
suit for reimbursement of costs of more than $3 million. Dr. Ralph Hardy was the
President of the Institute at the time, and he was energized by this claim because of its
potentially negative impact on the Institute’s endowment. BTI retained a law firm in
Albany (Whiteman, Osterman & Hannah, LLP) that specialized in environmentally
related litigation. Our insurance company initially asserted that coverage did not exist
and, at this point, the records of further actions have been blurred intentionally. Even as
a Board member, Leonard Weinstein was not informed of the actions. The denouement
was that our insurance company paid a significant portion of the costs, but BTI was
responsible for an amount that probably reached seven figures.
The Richard Wellman Years (1974-1980)
Richard H. Wellman was BTI’s third Managing
Director. He was no stranger to the Institute, having
been hired by the first Managing Director, William C.
Crocker in1939 as a Fellow in the new Carbide and
Carbon Chemicals project. The goal of the project
was to test organic chemicals produced by the
sponsor (or its parent company, Union Carbide) for
biological activity as fungicides (and later as
insecticides, miticides, herbicides, plant growth
regulators, etc.). The project grew significantly over
Richard H. Wellman, Former
Managing Director
the years. From these screening efforts, the most
important compound to see the marketplace was the insecticide ‘Sevin’. Unfortunately
for BTI, the patent was owned by Union Carbide. During the project’s tenure, about
14,000 compounds were screened.
(This period was during the heyday of the
introduction of new pesticides.) During the McNew years, industrial groups were
allowed to establish “fellowships” to carry on research or chemical screening, or both.
After the Union Carbide project began, the Institute had projects sponsored by the Ethyl
Corporation (later changed to Diamond Shamrock), and a few smaller assorted projects.
Dewayne Torgeson headed the miscellaneous projects; and David Sirois and Earle
25
Butterfield were faculty scientists. In many ways, these screening projects were not
too unlike the aborted project begun by Charles Arntzen in the 1990s with the Axis
Corporation, a kind of equivalent in molecular biology, except that it went bankrupt.
In 1954, Wellman left the Institute to take up the position as Assistant Manager of Fine
Chemicals at Union Carbide Corporation, but his contacts with the Institute continued.
He was appointed to the Research Advisory Committee in 1968 and a member of the
Board of Directors in 1969. At the BTI Annual Meeting of Members and Directors on
July 26, 1973, Wellman was nominated and elected to succeed Dr. George McNew as
Managing Director, a position he assumed on June 1, 1974. At this same meeting,
Leonard Weinstein was elected to the Board of Directors as the first ‘faculty’
representative. Weinstein resigned as a Director in 1992 at the same time as Dewayne
Torgeson. (Weinstein was not only the first representative of the faculty elected to the
Board, but also the last.
In 1999, the Chairperson of the Executive Committee
proposed and passed a by-law that would eliminate any future election of faculty
representatives to the Board. When asked why this was being proposed, the response
was that this is the way modern corporations operate. Because we were not a modern
corporation, a more plausible explanation might have been to provide an opening on the
Board for a new Director with business and industry contacts and/or “deep pockets”.)
The following are the concluding remarks made by McCallan (1975) in “A Personalized
History of the Boyce Thompson Institute”.
“[Dr. Wellman] is well equipped to handle Institute affairs having spent his
first 14 professional years on the Institute staff and all subsequent years in
industrial management with Union Carbide culminating in a vicepresidency. He is faced with grave problems: the necessary increase in
Institute income, and a reasonable solution to the real estate holdings.
The broad question of improving world agriculture and the possibility of the
Institute’s contribution is being studied. Plans satisfactory to all parties for
the new building at Cornell must be developed. Already some changes in
operation are evident, the Program Directors have been given more
responsibility, meetings are short and to the point, the new Managing
26
Director is a listener. May this new era rank in accomplishments with the
earlier ones and the years with Cornell be fruitful and happy.”
In the internal annual report for 1974, Wellman’s first, the minutes stated that the Board
Executive Committee approved a 12% salary increase for faculty, an almost presidential
amount, but this move was probably in anticipation of the move to Cornell. Wellman
mentioned in the report that:
“During the year we have devoted a great deal of effort to selecting
projects in International Agriculture where our scientists have the expertise
to make a contribution and where there are good possibilities of obtaining
outside funding.”
As will be seen subsequently, our efforts in International Agriculture were only modestly
successful, realized in part primarily by Alva App and Donald Roberts. Wellman’s first
years were difficult ones financially. Inflation was high and the stock market had
slumped. Foundation endowments had been seriously eroded and government
agencies were experiencing severe cutbacks in funding.
This may have been
instrumental in Dr. Wellman’s move into International Agriculture, although it was also
consistent with the Institute’s original goal to increase food production on a global scale.
After arriving at the new building at Cornell, several months were spent unpacking and
setting up the new facilities. Program Directors and other faculty members were given
more responsibility, especially in maintaining existing grants and finding new sources of
income because the move, as expected, added to the already significant drain on the
endowment. Meetings were blessedly short, Dr. Wellman believing that after one hour
meetings became repetitive and soporific. But, within the first couple of years on the
Cornell campus, it became obvious to many people that Dr. Wellman’s health was less
than perfect. His movements became somewhat uncoordinated and halting, and some
wondered if he had left Union Carbide to take the position at BTI because of early
symptoms of his condition which, sadly, turned out to be Parkinson’s disease. It
became worse during his tenure and near the end of his 5-year appointment, he was
having balance and other problems. Dr. Wellman’s tenure as Managing Director
continued the Institute’s tradition of supporting a multifaceted research program and
was characterized by strong individual endeavors.
27
His background was more in
industry than academics, government grants were tight and his contacts were more in
the international scene than in granting agencies, so it was natural to emphasize the
latter direction. Dr. Wellman retired as Managing Director on August 31, 1980, but
stayed on as a Member and Director of the Board and was also appointed as a
consultant to the new Managing Director. The consultancy was for five years at a
significant stipend each year. He was also allowed to purchase the house he occupied
from the Institute at fair market price.
The New Institute Building at Cornell University
Plans for the new building at Cornell were received with great enthusiasm because the
design, unlike the preliminary box-like design for a building at Oregon State, appeared
very avant-garde. According to the plans for construction, the building should have
been available in 1976 but, as with many best-laid plans, there was a fiscal crisis in New
York City which was quickly reflected in New York State’s financial situation, resulting in
deferment of the building’s construction. The possibility of funding from a consortium of
banks, private citizens, Cornell employees, etc., as discussed earlier, was a major topic
at the February 17 Executive Committee meeting. William Smith, the Board Chairman,
emphasized that the bonds would be moral obligation rather than full faith and credit
bonds of New York State, backed by the University’s tuition and hospital income and a
small endowment. Arthur H. Peterson, the Cornell University treasurer indicated that if
BTI would agree to purchase the bonds, the payment would not come due until the
building was completed The Institute’s brokers estimated that, because of the State’s
financial problems, the bonds would sell in the range of 80-85, not an ideal price. It was
estimated that the bonds would probably be issued in the 9 or 9.5% range with a 30year maturity. (Actually, they were issued at 9%, but the rate was dropped to 8% after
the first year). Although a risky investment, the Executive Committee was of the opinion
that the State, and if not the State, the Federal government, would not allow the bonds
to default. Dr. Wellman reviewed the Institute’s alternatives at this point and stated that
the Institute had three options: (1) we could sit by and hope that in a year or two the
State would allow SUNY to initiate new university construction; (2) we could attempt to
get a 2-year delay in vacating the Yonkers buildings from the Robert Martin Corporation,
the purchaser of the land; or (3) we could drop the Cornell affiliation and attempt to find
28
a similar type of arrangement with another university. But there were negatives
associated with each of these options. They would delay our moving from Yonkers and,
of paramount importance, would prevent us from realizing an anticipated annual savings
of $500,000 in services that would be provided by Cornell if we moved.
The actual move was now becoming even more tenuous. In a series of meeting of the
BTI Executive Committee and the BTI Board on February 17, 1976, the problems posed
by the State of New York financial problems cast serious doubt on whether we would
continue to work toward a move to Cornell. Christian Hohenlohe, the great-grandson of
William Boyce Thompson, pointed out that we had acted in good faith in agreeing to
affiliate with Cornell and that it was their responsibility to find a solution to the problem
of financing the building. As a trustee, he was reluctant to commit such a large part of
our capital to purchasing bonds that he considered to be a risky investment. Robert
Fulton, the Chairman of the Executive Committee, was also against purchasing the
bonds. He went further and said that we had an agreement with Cornell, entered into
by us in good faith, and proposed that we not accept anything less than what was
offered and approved originally. Later that day, at a special meeting of Members and
Directors, this issue was brought up again. A number of options were discussed among
which was one to abide by our affiliation agreement with Cornell and SUNY and wait
two years until the State was in a more favorable financial position and could construct
the building, or, we could seek a similar arrangement with another university. Chairman
of the Board William T. Smith pointed out that both options would require seeking an
extension from the Robert Martin Corporation for vacating the building, since we were
now in danger of becoming homeless, having sold all our land holdings and our home
for over 50 years!! There was much give and take at this meeting because of its
importance to the future of the Institute. Leonard Weinstein, who represented the
Institute staff on the Board, pointed out that the previous years of poor finances and the
tumult related to a possible move had brought about marked changes in the quality and
quantity of research. More and more faculty time had been spent in seeking funds and,
frequently, as a matter of necessity, accepting routine and mundane research projects.
He said that every effort should be made to increase income from the endowment.
Furthermore, a move to Cornell would help morale and strengthen us scientifically and
29
financially. Responding in part to Weinstein, C. Wadsworth Farnum expressed his
opinion that the risk of purchasing $3.5 million in bonds was worth it “since we would be
placing the Institute for the long term in the right climate to do good research.” On the
other hand, Fulton was concerned with Weinstein’s comments and pointed out that
there were also hazards in associating with a university “with all their [Cornell’s] financial
problems”. He went on to again oppose putting an investment such as New York State
bonds in our portfolio and suggested that we inform Cornell that we “either get the deal
originally signed or we look elsewhere.” Of course, “looking elsewhere” at this point
was only hypothetical. The deal with Oregon State University, for example, would have
had to be completely renegotiated and the Oregon legislature would have to reauthorize the invitation and construction monies. And, of course, the enthusiasm for BTI
may have waned after we turned down their offer and they were never able to throw
their bridal bouquet.
So, the Board meeting ended with uncertainty, but with a
consensus that we not purchase State bonds and that the Board officers be authorized
to explore other possibilities. Before adjournment, Rodman Rockefeller, a son of
Nelson Rockefeller, the New York State governor, and Dr. Roy A. Young, Vice
President for Research at Oregon State University, were elected as Directors. Young’s
election may have been partly an apology for our rebuff of OSU, but he also had long
and close ties to the Institute. (During the next 5 years, Mr. Rockefeller rarely came to
meetings and the largesse bestowed upon him in the form of a group of magnificent
Japanese threadleaf maples and a number of large hybrid rhododendrons far exceeded
that received in return. By contrast, Dr. Young faithfully attended meetings and was
destined to become BTI’s fourth Managing Director. Rockefeller resigned on May 8,
1980 and was replaced by Dr. Sterling Wortman, Acting President of the Rockefeller
Foundation).
At the Executive Committee Meeting on May 14, 1976, and sounding like a broken
record, there was a strong feeling that BTI should push Cornell for a solution, “but
unless we had a good answer from Cornell by the end of August, we should look
elsewhere”. Although Christian Hohenlohe agreed with this approach, Mr. Fulton
thought that we should immediately look elsewhere for the best arrangement. Later that
day, meetings of the Members and Directors were held. At this stage, Cornell was
30
suggesting that BTI purchase $2 million of Certificates of Deposit from a bank, which
in turn would purchase an equivalent amount of tax-exempt bonds. Dr. Wellman was in
favor of this approach. The ‘missing’ $1.5 million was to be purchased by local
Ithacans. Chairman Fulton restated his opinion that we did not have a viable agreement
with Cornell and therefore should not use any Institute funds. Dr. McNew, Mr. Farnum,
Mr. Hohenlohe and Mr. Smith indicated that they were in favor of the Cornell proposal
and that view was carried. It was now up to the Board, which met in a special session
on July 21, 1976. Chairman Smith announced that pledges from banks in Ithaca and
nearby and the Cornell and Ithaca community to purchase $6.5 million in New York
State bonds had been obtained. If the Institute would commit $2 million of the bonds,
the State would be enabled to issue a call for bids so that construction could begin in
the Fall. He recommended approval. The architect of the building, Ulrich Franzen,
indicated by letter to Dr. McNew that the total of $8.5 million would still be sufficient for
construction of the building. At last, the Board unanimously approved purchase of the
bonds and the Institute was on its way to the beginning of a new era. Did the Institute
purchase bonds? After all the controversy on the Board, the answer is “no”. Because
of a more favorable market for New York State Agency bonds, we were not required to
purchase any.
Now that the move to Cornell was to be a reality, the Institute began a serious review of
its portfolio. In past years, there had been intermittent calls from members of the Board
to place our portfolio under professional management. At the time, we had one or more
financial advisors to assist Chairman Smith in portfolio management.
So at the
December 6, 1976, meeting of the Finance Committee, the head of BTI’s team of
financial advisors, Mr. Ramsay Wilson, President of Schroeder Naess & Thomas, stated
that he and his colleagues saw no immediate problems in endorsing the Institute’s three
major holdings, Newmont Mining, Phelps Dodge and Continental Oil, but suggested that
they be watched carefully because they offered limited opportunities. From a clinical
point of view, he stated, they would prefer that no single stock exceed 10% of a
portfolio’s value, but each of these did.
Rumblings were again to be heard for
professional stock and bond management. At the Finance Committee meeting held on
July 11, 1977, Mr. Farnum expressed particular concern about our holdings in Newmont
31
Mining and Phelps Dodge, which were providing about 50% (!) of the Institute’s
portfolio income, and which recently had reduced their dividends. He reasoned that
they would probably not appreciate significantly in the near future and, because of
inflation, we needed to increase income while protecting the Institute’s corpus. The
outcome of the subsequent discussion was that we should reduce our holdings in
Newmont Mining and “purchase selected stocks”. The initial move toward professional
portfolio management was made at the Annual Meeting of Members on May 9, 1978.
Dr. Wellman proposed that the management of the Institute’s portfolio be given to
Schroder, Naess & Thomas with discretionary authority, that the Finance Committee be
dissolved, that the Executive Committee be empowered to set basic investment policy
and monitor the actions of the financial advisors, and that William T. Smith (Chairman of
the Board) serve as coordinator between the Executive Committee and the portfolio
manager. This was approved. At the Executive Committee meeting of November 28,
1978, the portfolio manager stated that the holdings in Newmont Mining and Phelps
Dodge would be reduced to not more than 5% of each. For some reason, this was not
done. In fact, in 1980, the Institute’s position in Newmont Mining was reduced from
16% to 10% of the total portfolio by the sale of 18,125 shares. The Pension Fund,
however, did not hold any Newmont Mining stocks in its portfolio.
In the minutes of the Board meeting of May 12, 1977, Chairman Smith introduced the
possibility that the Institute should purchase a residence upon the move to Ithaca that
would then be leased to the Managing Director at a fair rental. The home was to
provide “room appropriate to the entertainment of visiting scientists and other guests of
the Institute”. The proposal was unanimously passed, but the specific use of the home
for entertainment of Institute people or visitors never became a reality. At the same
meeting, and according to the Affiliation Agreement, the following four nominees of
Cornell President Dale Corson were elected as Directors:
•
W.D. Cooke, Vice President for Research, Cornell University
•
James F. Kelly, Executive Vice Chancellor, State University of New York
•
W. Keith Kennedy, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,
Cornell University
32
•
Noland L. VanDemark, Director of Research, College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences, and Director of Cornell University Agricultural Experiment
Station (Ithaca)
Over the years since the first Directors were nominated by the President of Cornell, they
not only have represented Cornell’s interests on the Board, but they have also been
generally helpful to BTI in many ways.
In late summer and fall of 1978, we moved into our new building. It was a bittersweet
move, with considerable sadness in leaving the Institute’s original home, a building
which carried so many fond memories, the separation from friends, etc., but it was also
a great adventure, acquiring a brilliant, new facility in a challenging environment. The
usual problems of a complex move were solved by year-end and we were warmly
welcomed by the Cornell and Ithaca communities. It was a remarkable tribute to the
Institute that nearly all scientific and support staff members moved to Ithaca. The new
building was somewhat larger than the old Institute, and had four floors of offices and
laboratories.
International Programs
Dr. Wellman felt that his lasting contribution for a new source of funding would be the
area of international programs. He had good contacts with the Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations, both of which were major players on the international scene. George
Harrar of the Rockefeller Foundation seemed to be an especially good contact. In 1974,
to learn what was out there, Dr. Wellman sent Drs. Richard Staples and Robert
Granados on a tour of the important International Centers. Indeed Staples was happily
on vacation where he and his family had rented a small rural house in Vermont when
Wellman asked Staples to return home to begin the travel. The urgency was necessary
because the travel was scheduled to coincide with the annual scientific reviews of the
Consultative Group on Agricultural Research (CGIAR) stations to be visited: the Asian
Research and Vegetable Development Research Center (AVRDC) in Taiwan was first,
followed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, and the International
Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Columbia.
33
This trip was followed by one in 1975. Leonard Weinstein, who was in contact with a
scientist in Mexico, learned that there was interest in establishing a collaboration to
study effects of pollution emanating from Mexico City on the forests and agriculture in
the Valley of Mexico. Wellman saw this as a means of entry into Mexican agriculture
and sent a team down at BTI’s expense to meet with the people at the university, with
foundation people and to make any other contacts. The team consisted of Weinstein,
Robert Granados and Delbert McCune from BTI, and Steven Reich, a member of the
Science and Technology Program at Cornell who had worked on projects in South
America and was fluent in Spanish. On the flight down, Weinstein came down with the
flu and never left the Mexico City airport terminal, fantasizing several versions of his
demise while waiting six hours for the next flight back to New York. The rest of the team
went on to a hotel in the Zona Rosa, met with Edward Wellhausen, the Rockefeller
Foundation’s “man in Mexico”, went to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center (CIMMYT) located near Mexico City, talked to a few people, and then returned to
the U.S. empty-handed. Over the next two years, Alva App and Richard Staples visited
the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru and the CIMMYT in Mexico. However,
neither station was very interested in supplementing their programs by collaborating
with other institutions. While this was typical of our attempts to crack into the
international agriculture scene, Granados and Donald Roberts did spend two to three
months each at ICRISAT as part of a Rockefeller-sponsored grant. By 1976, Alva App’s
program, Cell Physiology and Virology, was conducting research on pathogens of
insects in cooperation with ICRISAT. App began studies on nitrogen fixation in rice
paddies in collaboration with Martin Alexander of Cornell University, and App himself,
went off to IRRI to continue these studies with grants from the UNDP and UNEP.
To further support the development of an International Program, Wellman arranged for
Staples to join the Science and Technology Policy office from 1975 to 1976. The office
was located in the National Science Foundation in Washington. The OSTP office was
run by President Nixon’s science advisor, Guyford Stever, Director of NSF. Nixon had
little patience with science advice, and directed that the office be transferred out of the
White House. Staples moved his family to Washington and spent a year there where he
wrote policy papers on alternative sources of energy and helped to establish the
34
Competitive Grants office in the US Department of Agriculture. He also advised the
Office of Management and Budget on various aspects of the federal budget for the
USDA. While Staples learned a lot about science funding and the politics of biological
science and agriculture, contacts useful for the support of international collaborative
research were illusory. However, the Washington experience provided insight that
pointed the way for Staples to redirect his research toward a new focus on the
molecular biology of fungal development, research for which he eventually received
international recognition.
Upon Staples’ return in 1976, the Physiology of Parasitism Program was expanded and
renamed the Plant Stress Program under his leadership. The new program was to
include not only disease stress in plants, but also drought, aluminum ion toxicity and
temperature stresses. In 1977, a new program was formed under Robert Granados, the
Biological Control of Insects, to meld work on insect pheromones, carried over from the
Forest Biology Program, with the ongoing work on insect pathology.
This was to
provide a concerted effort toward the control of pest problems of the world. Upon
relocation to Cornell, a USDA Insect Pathology Research Unit (IPRU), headed by
Richard Soper, joined BTI. The USDA-IPRU located within BTI to create a center of
excellence in entomopathogenic fungal research at Cornell.
In 1980, the Insect Pathology Resource Center (IPRC) was formed. The center was
comprised of the insect pathology specialists of the Biological Control Program, the
USDA Plant Protection Research Unit at BTI, and Cornell’s Department of Entomology.
The functions of IPRC included training, maintenance of a repository of pathogens,
consultation and conducting research that bridged basic and applied studies on
microbial control of pests. The Center even organized a graduate-level, three-credit
hour course (Entomology 653), the first full-semester course at Cornell that was taught
within the Institute building.
Despite the difficulties in starting International research programs, several were active
by 1977. These included one on rice at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
located in the Philippines. Alva App, in cooperation with Alan Eaglesham and Martin
Alexander, a Cornell professor, developed a very complex program that combined pure
and applied science focused on nitrogen fixation in the rice paddy. They especially
35
studied the enhancement of rice productivity by soil microorganisms and the
contribution of nitrogen fixed by legumes and green algae growing in the rice paddy.
App spent extensive periods at IRRI, and the team learned much about how to improve
the productivity of paddy rice by improving nitrogen fixation in the paddy, nitrogen that
could be utilized by the rice plant. The studies were funded by grants from the UNDP
and UNEP.
Donald Roberts and Robert Granados developed a broad program of research on the
biocontrol of insects in 1980. The objectives were to search for new efficacious and
readily mass-produced isolates and species of pathogens for the biocontrol of insect
pests. Brazil was one of two primary research sites. Richard Daoust, a BTI scientist,
was stationed in Brazil principally at the Brazilian Federal Agriculture Research
Organization (EMBRAPA) laboratory. Two other BTI Research Associates, who served
in Brazil were Jeffrey Lord, and Stephen Wraight. Michael Rombach was stationed at
IRRI in the Philippines where he was specifically interested in new isolates and new
species of fungi pathogenic to rice insect pests.
Don Roberts’ research was funded primarily by grants from USAID, and was carried out
using a combination of cooperative research with local scientists and frequent, but
short, visits to the research sites complemented by laboratory research at BTI. Overall,
the studies included field and laboratory trials using several fungal pathogens to control
cowpea insect pests. The fungal entomopathogen, Metarhizium anisopliae, was
integrated into the Brazilian programs of insect control. As a result, Roberts' laboratory
research at BTI was expanded to include a basic program of research on the infection
processes by the fungus in cooperation with Richard Staples and Raymond St. Leger.
Roberts’ research on biocontrol of insects in Brazil continued at BTI until his retirement
at the end of 1996.
By 1982, Allan Eaglesham had established a collaborative program of research at IITA.
The research sought to improve nitrogen fixation by bean and cowpea, and was
supported by funds from the UNDP under their program of support. Eaglesham's overall
objective was to improve the contribution of nitrogen from rhizobia to legumes growing
in the farming systems of the lowland humid tropics. In order to do this, Eaglesham and
his group sought to identify competitive strains of rhizobia for use in inoculation trials
36
using bean and cowpea crops growing in tropical soils. The diversity and relatedness
of strains of rhizobia between the various field locations was also studied. Eaglesham
spent considerable periods of time at the IITA station in Nigeria. At about the same time,
Eaglesham and Alidar Szalay, established new studies at BTI on the molecular biology
of nitrogen fixation by rhizobial bacteria to complement the fieldwork at IITA. It was their
objective to construct new strains of rhizobia that would fix atmospheric nitrogen more
efficiently, and that would better tolerate the harsh climate of the humid tropics of West
Africa. Eventually such strains were developed and made available to IITA.
Alan Renwick moved back to other activities at the Institute in 1976 when the forest
biology program was closed. He began studies on the mechanisms by which the
cabbage looper recognizes the cabbage plant and spaces eggs on the plant. So in
1980, Renwick, along with Patrick Hughes and Frank Messina established a program of
research on the cowpea weevil in Cameroon using funds from USAID. Messina was
then stationed there. The cowpea weevil is a cosmopolitan pest of stored cowpea seed
that infests cowpea seed in the field. Beetles are able to disperse their eggs evenly
among seeds by recognizing and avoiding seed with previously laid eggs. Egg
recognition was found to involve a combination of chemical and physical cues, and the
object of the research was to identify these cues.
In 1982, Alva App began a two-year leave of absence to become Deputy Director of the
International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya. In 1983, he resigned
from BTI to join the UNDP in New York City. Eaglesham also left BTI. Staples, Wood
and Granados by then had turned away from any involvement in international research.
So, except for Roberts, most of the International group had either left BTI or returned to
their own laboratory science by 1983.
While a review of Institute programs in 1982 found that the collaborative international
programs proved to be less productive for the time invested than research programs
carried out at BTI, involvement with research in the less-developed countries enriched
its research programs. BTI added research on the molecular biology of nitrogen fixation
under Szalay to better understand how legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen. In a similar
way, research was started with Roberts and St. Leger to learn the mechanisms that
fungal insect pathogens use to colonize their insect hosts. Staples also changed his
37
program on the study of rust fungi to learn how the very virulent fungal pathogens
colonize their host plants. Because the Institute was able to broaden its interests to
replace research that had to be left behind, or had matured when it moved to Cornell, its
involvement with the CGIAR institutions aided its transition to the rich research
environment at Cornell University.
A Sea Change
The move to Cornell marked the beginning of a sea change in the future scientific
direction of the Institute, although its full manifestation would take more than two
decades. From its beginning, the Institute had strong programs in plant pathology, e.g.,
the ground-breaking research carried out on fungal and viral pathogens [L.O. Kunkel,
F.O. Holmes, Helen Purdy Beale, S.E.A. McCallan] to name only four, plant physiology,
including seed physiology, photobiology, and plant growth regulation [F.E. Denny, L.P.
Miller, P.W. Zimmerman, A.E. Hitchcock, J.M. Arthur, and Lela V. Barton], air pollution
[William Crocker, P.W. Zimmerman, A.E. Hitchcock, C. Setterstrom, the latter being the
Institute’s unofficial social chairman], development of new fungicides and their modes of
action [S.E.A, McCallan, F. Wilcoxon] and entomology [A. Hartzell]. At the time of the
move to Cornell in 1978, there were five programs: Environmental Biology, Nitrogen
Fixation, Biological Control, Plant Stress and Bioregulant Chemicals. Although the
program names had changed, the major areas of research were still present. They
represented a broad range of scientific subjects, including effects of air pollutants on
agriculture and forestry; nitrogen fixation in rice and legumes; viruses and mycoplasma
that infect insects and behavior-modifying chemicals; stress physiology, physiology of
disease tolerance and rust uredospore physiology; and testing of chemicals for
biological activity. The major change was the gradual displacement of holistic plant
studies with molecular genetics, finally, to the exclusion of other scientific disciplines for
which the Institute had been known.
This culminated during Charles Arntzen’s
presidency in the late 1990s with the dissolution of all programs that had existed in
1978, including Environmental Biology, converting them into Centers, a singularly illconceived and unsuccessful decision. The former programs were now essentially in
free fall, without a program director to coordinate decision-making. This represented a
38
shift in power from a management team that shared decision–making, to a more topdown style of management.
The first taste of molecular genetics was served in the person of A.A. Szalay and his
colleagues, especially William Langridge, who studied the transfer of gene clusters of
nitrogen fixation from a procaryote (Klebsiella, Clostridium, Rhizobium) to a eucaryote
(yeast, higher plant). Following Szalay and Langridge, molecular biology became the
main focal point of the Institute. By 2005, all non-molecular biologists had either been
induced to take early retirement or asked to leave. So much for Family.
The Roy Young Years (1980-1986)
Roy Young was selected as the top candidate to succeed Richard Wellman as
Managing Director after Charles Hess and Ralph Hardy withdrew as candidates. His
selection provoked a considerable amount of controversy among some faculty. A
meeting of the Executive Committee on April 18, 1980 was held at the Boyce Thompson
Southwestern Arboretum in Superior, AZ.
At the
meeting, Charles Palm (formerly Dean of the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell) and Leonard
Weinstein (both of whom were present in Superior
because of membership on the Arboretum Board) were
asked to attend the meeting and discuss the problem
from the standpoint of the Cornell Administration and
Boyce Thompson faculty. They reiterated the nature of
divisiveness at both institutions and urged a prompt
resolution of this situation. The Executive Committee
Dr. Roy Young
decided in favor of Roy Young as the best qualified
person to serve as Managing Director, subject to
approval of the Board of Directors. Thus ended perhaps the most controversial
appointment of a Managing Director, equaled only by the challenge to Dr. McNew by
John Arthur in 1948. (See McCallan, 1975, p. 144). Dr. Young assumed the duties of
Managing Director on September 1, 1980.
39
As part of his compensation package, Dr. Wellman proposed that the Institute
purchase a residence in Ithaca, “including rooms suitable for Institute functions”, to be
leased to Dr. Young at a fair rental. A vehicle was also to be provided for his use. It is
interesting to note that neither Wellman nor Young made use of these “rooms” for
Institute functions and, in fact, entertainment at home by all subsequent Managing
Directors/Presidents had all but ended with Dr. McNew in 1974. Providing a residence
and an automobile did not continue with later chief executives.
At Dr. Young’s first meeting of the Executive Committee on October 17, 1980, he
commented that his goal was to operate with a balanced budget, something the Institute
had not accomplished for a number of years. Dewayne Torgeson gave a detailed
overview of the Institute’s pension and other benefit plans, comparing them with
Cornell’s (particularly the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences [CALS]). Health plan
benefits (hospital, medical and major medical) compared favorably with Cornell’s but the
Institute’s employee contribution was higher. Cornell provided a dental plan, which the
Institute looked at over the years but never activated because the cost was apparently
too great. Life insurance coverage was superior to Cornell’s plan at CALS. Cornell
offered a scholarship plan for children of employees for study at Cornell or other
associated institutions. It was not available to Institute employees. Today, 24 years
later, no system has been devised for the education of children of Institute employees.
Torgeson concluded that the statutory colleges had a superior plan, at least at that time.
A related issue that has been brought forth to the Board on occasion was that the
pensions of retirees of CALS were supplemented on a periodic basis, depending upon
the rate of inflation. The Institute felt that it could not match this, but there was an
informal agreement on the Board to visit this problem every five years for a possible
adjustment. For the most part, this was not followed and, on the rare occasions when it
was, adjustments fell far short of the previous years’ rate of inflation.
Because the Institute had not operated with a balanced budget for a number of years,
Dr. Young expressed his unhappiness with a projected deficit of $180,000 (it turned out
to be $132,000). On May 8, 1981, at the annual meeting of Members, Dr. George
Frangos of the State University of NY was reappointed as a Cornell representative on
the Board. This is mentioned here only because Dr. Frangos and a close friend of one
40
of us (LW) were in the Greek underground together during the military junta period.
Meetings of two or three members would be held in church pews. They were both
fortunate not to have been caught and jailed for subversive activities.
At the Board meeting that same day, there were two important retirements from the
Board. William T. Smith, asked to be relieved of that position and recommended the
election of Christian Hohenlohe (great-grandson of William B. Thompson and already a
Board member) as Chairman and Robert Pennoyer (a partner in Patterson, Belknap,
Webb & Tyler, a New York City law firm) as Vice Chairman. Mr. Smith had served as
an officer on the Board of Directors for 43 years and as Chairman for 16 years. On the
occasion of his retirement from the Board, S.E.A. McCallan was also recognized for his
52 years of service to the Institute as a plant pathologist, 14 of which were as Corporate
Secretary. Both were elected as Emeritus Board members. Dr. Young also requested
permission to “initiate a fund drive to enhance the BTI endowment”. This may have
been the first official action to supplement the endowment, and we would soon learn
what a herculean task this would be. We were a small institution, had a limited core of
‘alumni’ and little past history of receiving gifts from outside sources. A number of
wealthy individuals had served on the Board over the years, but only one of them had
made significant contributions to BTI, and they were usually made anonymously.
Shortly after the meeting, the Institute’s first Development Officer, Jerry Passer, was
hired.
The Ralph Hardy Years (1986 -1995)
Ralph Hardy joined the Institute as its President in September 1986, after holding senior
positions at DuPont (Director of Life Sciences) and BioTechnica International. For its
first 62 years, the title of the head of the Institute was Managing Director. Hardy
objected to this because he felt it was old fashioned and, furthermore, it was more
appropriate for a British head officer, and he requested that his title be ‘President and
CEO’. The by-laws were changed to accommodate all future Presidents. Roy Young,
who was completing his term as Managing Director, spent the last few months as
President and CEO. Hardy’s initial aims were to tighten control of the President’s office
over the Institute’s activities, especially the research programs. He worked to increase
41
faculty performance and to upgrade research quality. He favored research that was
focused clearly on utilitarian goals, especially research that could be patented or would
underpin government regulations, especially agricultural and environmental regulations,
and he worked to insert molecular biology into the programs wherever possible. These
aims were clearly expressed by the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council, an
organization he founded and led initially. Although a few patents had been secured in
earlier years, the goal of research at BTI to secure patents had been discouraged.
Hardy saw patents as a benefit to help pay for the costs of research, and he now
encouraged patent applications. Indeed he wanted to restructure the Institute to become
a world leader in the generation of new knowledge and its application to agriculture that
would contribute to its altered needs as agriculture changed from an emphasis on crop
yield to a reduction in production costs.
To implement this in part, he formed the Management
Advisory Committee (MAC) to improve communication
with the faculty. This committee was intended to
represent all levels of job classification, so that
concerns could be dealt with at an early stage. For
example, in 1988, some of the staff wanted to organize
a union shop of the United Auto Workers, an initiative
that might have been averted had there been a forum
for better discussion of working conditions. The support
staff, especially, felt that a union would help to reduce
inequality and arbitrary treatment in the non-scientist
positions. They assembled the “BTI Staff Organizing
Ralph Hardy
Drive” and published seven issues of a newsletter called
“The Expression Vector”. A number of “messages” were produced and distributed by
both sides in the drive, which lasted about 6 months. Hardy worked hard to defeat the
union, which he eventually did by a narrow 47 to 46 vote. Several of the flyers, letters
and newsletters related to the attempted unionization are shown in the Appendix.
Hardy also developed a mechanism under the Pension Plan for early retirements,
including tenure-track scientists, and this was coupled with the expanded use of a non42
tenure track by employing new research staff as ‘Research Scientists’ hired on 5-year
contracts.
Hardy was especially concerned with the quality and productivity of the faculty. He
instituted regular staff evaluations for merit supplemented by an early retirement
scheme that allowed early retirement on an “enriched retirement basis” supported by
the Pension Plan which was over-funded at the time. A change in tenure rules was also
begun to encourage faculty turnover. A tenured employee would be evaluated each
year, and would be expected to maintain a record of innovative research of seminal
importance, publication in peer-reviewed publications, continued funding, and
meritorious service to the Institute. Later, in the Klessig administration, the policy was
modified so that if during the annual review, a tenured faculty member received
evaluations that were unsatisfactory in two consecutive years, a formal post-tenure
review would be triggered, a review that would determine if a the scientist must leave
BTI. An Assistant scientist (pre-tenure) could be dismissed for lack of productivity,
his/her research area was discontinued, or the financial exigencies of the Institute
required dismissal. This was a new ‘take’ on tenure and gave the administration nearly
total control over the composition of faculty.
In 1991, Hardy appointed Robert Kohut as Director of Operations and Frederic “Ben”
Williams as Director of Public Affairs. Kohut accepted the position contingent on being
able to continue his research program. Two years later, Sherry Ashton succeeded
Williams in Public Affairs. By 1997, new changes were initiated. Arntzen appointed
John Dentes as Vice President for Finance and Treasurer, Stephen Howell as Vice
President for Research and Joyce Frank as Vice President for Operations. The latter
change was made by Arntzen, who brooked little hint of opposition, and Bob Kohut was
replaced (as Director of Operations) by Joyce Frank. After a relatively short time, she
was replaced by Larry Russell, but the title did not make the move and he became
Director of Operations. The Vice Presidents for Finance and Research continued,
however. The appointment of Vice Presidents caused a stir on the Board because
there were no provisions in the by-laws for such titles. The by-laws were changed
accordingly to accommodate this new title.
43
Weekly internal seminars were begun to allow a close look at research project
productivity and relevance. Hardy also reorganized the Board’s Research Advisory
Committee and called it the ‘Research Oversight Committee’, a committee of scientists
not affiliated with BTI.
Dr. John Oswald was the first chair followed by Harvard
Professor Laurence Bogorad. Research Programs were to be evaluated every five
years. To upgrade the scientific skill level of project leaders, Institute scientists were
encouraged to take sabbatical leaves. While these were generally intended to be
relatively short 6-month leaves, productivity was to be monitored after return, and
ineffective performers were to be encouraged to leave. Eventually, one faculty member
was dismissed.
The Board of Directors was also changed in order to reduce age and to appoint
members with a greater knowledge of science and those with ‘deep pockets’. With the
Chairman of the Board (Paul Hoffman) and other members of the Executive Committee,
Hardy instituted a selection committee to choose new Board members as openings
occurred. These new members were then appointed for 5-year terms with a retirement
age of 70, although, as it turned out, as with several other Hardy edicts, was never
enforced.
To help raise the visibility of BTI within the scientific community, Hardy began a
‘Distinguished Lecture Series’. A committee of Institute scientists invited prominent
researchers to present well-publicized lectures at the Institute. The speakers were given
a plaque and honorarium to mark the event. Occasionally, an auditorium larger than the
99-seat “lecture hall” at BTI was used because of the large audience that was attracted.
These lectures continue today.
Hardy also initiated development of a long-range plan for the Institute. Initially, his plan
included a small group of socio-economists who were to integrate research in BTI’s
major research areas with the hope that the integrated approach would serve as a
model for future agricultural research, and be attractive for broad support from
foundations, special relationships with large corporations or an equity or other researchsupport relationship with a start-up company. Eventually the initiative faded from view
probably reflecting the reality that university research is usually performed by individuals
44
working within small groups. Although this did not reach its apex until the presidency
of Charles Arntzen, Hardy was a proponent of faculty turnover.
To move the Institute more strongly into biotechnology, Hardy realigned the programs,
and added a new program in Plant Molecular Biology. In the summer of 1988, BTI
appointed Steve Howell from the University of California at San Diego as the first
Program Director for Molecular Biology.
Howell was soon appointed as the Boyce
Schultz Downey Scientist in honor of the founder’s granddaughter, Peggy Schultz
Downey.
Howell headed a group that studied hormone-regulated gene expression in
plants, the expression of virus genes and the mechanisms of aluminum toxicity in
plants. The new program also came to include the study of chloroplast function under
David Stern, and the synthesis of amino acids under Robert Last.
In 1995, following a discussion of patent royalties, Hardy proposed that the Institute
establish the following scale with a significant incentive to the inventors:
Net Annual Patent Income
Up to $100,000
$100,000 to $500,000
$500,000 to $2,000,000
More than $2,000,000
% Inventor(s)% Operations% Endowment
30
30
30
30
63.0
17.5
7.0
-0-
7.0
52.5
63.0
70.0
The program on Plant Stress under Dick Staples was merged with Biocontrol of Insects
under Robert Granados, who then became the Program Director of the new Plant
Protection Program. Staples was appointed the G.L. McNew Scientist, and became
independent of program affiliation, a long-sought goal of his. Staples retired at the end
of 1991.
The Environmental Biology Program under Leonard Weinstein, the largest and best
integrated program at BTI, was largely untouched by the reorganization. The major
focus of the program remained the effects of various air pollutants on plants, and the
program added Mary Topa to study root transport systems as affected by air pollutants
and, somewhat later, Jonathan Comstock, an expert in plant physiological ecology,
particularly in the area of plant-water relations. In 1987, the program was presented
with a “Distinguished Achievement Award” by the EPA for its outstanding research as a
participant in the National Crop-Loss Assessment Program. Weinstein served as
45
Director of Cornell’s Ecosystem Research Center in 1989-1990. He was also named
to the EPA Science Advisory Board and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Science
Advisory Committee. Weinstein retired at the end of 1992. John Laurence was then
named Program Director, a position he held until he left BTI in 2001, although he was
on a leave of absence for several years before.
Hardy assigned to himself a new program that emphasized Plant Production. It was a
heterogenous program meant to draw together a group of projects that didn’t fit within
the existing programs. At its core, were several projects on plant roots and symbiotic
nitrogen fixation under Thomas LaRue and projects left behind when Alidar Szalay and
William Langridge left the Institute. The Plant Production Program also included a
project on the impact of the human population on estuarine biology under Ted Buckley,
the remains of a much larger study of the Hudson River biota that ended when BTI
moved to Cornell. A project on gravitropism and another on the stability of seeds under
long-term storage were also included in the Plant Production Program. Both studies
were initiated and led by Carl Leopold. Leopold has won numerous international awards
for his work with seeds, and his book ‘Plant Growth and Development’ is a classic. He
was named earlier as the William C. Crocker Scientist.
After its merger with Plant Stress, the Plant Protection Program under Robert Granados
was focused on biological pest control. The virologist, Gary Blissard, and the
entomologist, Ann Hajek, joined the program early in 1990. Research objectives
included studies to understand the genes and gene products important for host
colonization and infection by fungal and viral pathogens, and information from these
studies was to be used to develop biological control strategies. Other projects included
the ecology of plant-pest-insect interactions and the survival and persistence of
engineered microbes in the environment. In addition to his own research, Blissard, with
his strong background in molecular biology, was an important resource person for the
Program.
Donald Roberts continued his cooperative work in Brazil until his early retirement in
1996. He particularly wanted to find insect pathogens that might be used to control the
mosquitoes that carry the malarial parasite, but he was also interested in seeking to
control other insects that impacted the health of the South American population as well
46
as their crops. In addition, he collaborated with Raymond St. Leger and Richard
Staples to clone the genes from the fungal insect pathogen, Metarhizium anisopliae,
that coded for proteins involved with the penetration process used by the fungus to
penetrate the insect cuticle. In 1999, a patent was issued for one of the proteases, Pr1,
the first enzyme secreted by M. anisopliae during cuticular penetration. Roberts, St.
Leger and Staples shared in the patent.
This highly sophisticated research was expensive. The faculty was continually engaged
in seeking outside support, especially from foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation,
and government sources like AID, NSF, EPA and NIH. However, funds from the Boyce
Thompson endowment were always needed to supplement salaries, buy capital
equipment and pay for the services required to operate the stockroom, the library, and
the business office with its many functions mandated by government agencies in some
way. Yet the Board felt that the usual 7% to 9% draw was preventing the endowment
from growing and Hardy decided to adopt a goal of a 6% draw. To do this, he
inaugurated a Development Office, and Ben Williams was appointed to help raise funds
to offset the reduced draw. Williams had expertise in Development at Cornell, and was
particularly well positioned as a lobbyist to state government at Albany. Hardy also
moved strongly to reduce research costs at BTI. He provided incentives for tenure-track
scientists to retire, structured a program whereby distinguished emeritus scientists could
continue their work at BTI after retirement (the DESIRE program, which continued only
during his tenure), expanded use of a non-tenure track for employing senior scientists,
provided incentives for scientists to transfer research costs to sponsors’ funds and
sought in various ways to reduce operating expenses. There was also an initiative to
shift, where possible, to NIH funding and away from the USDA which capped the
overhead of its grants at 14%, a rate far below the actual overhead costs of a project at
BTI.
Hardy also had to solve a very difficult problem involving Cornell’s Entomology
Department. During the early years at Cornell, efforts by Roberts and Granados to
obtain appointments as Adjunct Professors were rebuffed. The objections appear to
have been based on a marked reticence by the Entomology faculty to lose control of the
direction of the field. Yet other departments like Plant Pathology readily appointed
47
Staples and Howell to their faculty where they gave lectures and even taught courses.
Hardy worked hard to establish a bridge to Entomology, and eventually succeeded in
getting the required votes for adjunct appointments. By the time he left BTI in 1995,
there was a warm relationship between Entomology and BTI, and it was with real
gratification to learn that Ann Hajek had been awarded a professorship there. She was
granted tenure shortly afterward.
In his nearly 10 years as President, Hardy achieved most of his goals. By 1994, the
endowment draw had been reduced to 6.7%. He attained a tighter control over the
Institute’s programs, which he realigned to reflect his views that research should be
carried out with clear, narrowly defined goals that would yield a useful product. He
adored patents. The Institute became what many on the faculty really wanted, an
institution devoted to applied science. The dreamers drifted away, and in later years we
were to see some rather tragic results of the decision to hire scientists without tenure
because the policy led to the arbitrary dismissal of several very productive and wellfunded scientists. There was also a downside to the policy of encouraging faculty
turnover because eventually Steve Howell, John Laurence and Robert Last, among the
most creative and productive scientists, left BTI for positions at other Institutions. These
changes did, however, produce a more well defined, easy-to-grasp package that could
be sold to industrial sponsors, and charitable foundations. Indeed these kinds of
changes occurred across the Cornell campus as government-supported research
declined. By the time Hardy had stepped down, the Institute had changed to fit the
campus culture of high quality, cutting-edge research that yielded clear practical results,
and was funded by a wide-array of industrial and government sponsors. But we became
a group of entrepreneurs barely distinguishable from anyone else on the campus.
At his last meeting of the Board of Directors, Hardy outlined some examples of key
scientific contributions that took place during his tenure:
•
In 1989, the first field release of a genetically engineered virus was
accomplished by H. Alan Wood, in collaboration with a Cornell scientist.
•
Enhancins, capable of destroying the gut lining of insects, enabling viruses
to kill the insect, was discovered by Robert R. Granados and was licensed
to industry.
48
•
An understanding of the signaling, or cross-talk, that enables fungi to
determine the ‘right moment’ to make infectious structures in plants
resulted in awarding Richard Staples and Cornell scientist Harvey C. Hoch
the Ruth Allen Award from the American Phytopathological Society.
•
Control of gypsy moths by a fungus was researched successfully by Ann
Hajek, now a professor at Cornell.
•
An aromatic amino acid-derived secondary metabolite, found to be crucial
in protecting plants from UV-B, was found by Robert Last.
•
A gene responsible for the systemic movement of viruses in plants was
identified by Stephen Howell.
•
A computer model, TREGRO, simulates tree growth and is used to project
long-term environmental damage from ozone, acidic precipitation or
drought to trees was developed by David Weinstein and is being used by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The U.S. Forest Service and
the National Park Service.
•
Discovery of glassy-state technology by Carl Leopold that has wide
application for the stabilization of biomedical materials.
•
A new understanding of plant-insect-pollutant interactions was gained
from studies by Patrick Hughes.
On January 7, 1995, a special meeting of the Executive Committee was held to
interview candidates for President.
Following interviews with each of the three
candidates, Charles Arntzen, Wilhelm Gruissem and Michael Unsworth, the Executive
Committee selected Arntzen as the first choice, although the faculty and search
committee favored Unsworth.
The need to reduce the Institute’s draw on the endowment through individualized
severance arrangement with tenured scientists was explored by Hardy at a special
meeting of the Executive Committee on July 7, 1995. Hardy reported that he had
received favorable responses from two scientists and willingness for further discussions
from others, based on a severance arrangement to be determined. He stated that the
average cost of severance would be recovered in reduced draw from the endowment in
two or three years, after which there would be a net saving. He also pointed out that in
49
accordance with law, the Institute had no mandatory retirement policy.
These
severance arrangements were to be continued by Dr. Arntzen if severance agreements
had not been reached by Hardy’s retirement date.
Later that year, on June 23, a. symposium entitled “Agricultural Biotechnology: Science
and Public Policy” was held in Hardy’s honor “to recognize his many accomplishments
while President, his national scientific leadership, and the distinguished service he
provided not only to the Institute but to the broad field of plant research and
biotechnology”. Each of the speakers had been colleagues of Hardy’s, but other
participants included Stephen H. Howell, Program Director for Plant Molecular Biology
and the Boyce Schulze Downey Scientist; Robert Granados, Program Director for Plant
Protection and the Charles A. Palm Scientist; and John A. Laurence, Program Director
for Environmental Biology. At the banquet that followed, several speakers paid tribute
to Hardy.
The Charles Arntzen Years (1995-2000)
Charles Arntzen took over the reins of the Institute on September 1, 1995. Before
coming to BTI, he had held faculty positions at the University of Illinois and Michigan
State University. He was a research scientist with the USDA and Director of the
Michigan State University-Plant Research Laboratory, funded by the department of
Energy. In 1984, he joined the DuPont Company as Director of Plant Science and
Microbiology and, later, Director of Biotechnology in the Agricultural Products
Department. In 1988, he became Dean and Deputy Chancellor for Agriculture at Texas
A & M University, followed by a stint as the University’s Director of the Plant
Biotechnology Program of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology.
Charles Arntzen was arguably the most able scientist and most active president in BTI’s
history and was only the second BTI scientist to be elected to the National Academy of
Sciences (the first was L.O. Kunkel, who left BTI for the Rockefeller Institute). From the
outset of his administration, it was clear that there would be a major emphasis in plant
molecular biology. Because funding had been significantly reduced, those who read tea
leaves could have predicted that other programs were going to be diminished, a
situation which came to pass. He stated in his first Annual Report in 1995 that:
50
“This increasingly competitive scientific environment presents interesting
challenges at this time as I start my presidency at the Boyce Thompson
Institute......I am a firm believer in the axiom that ‘the strong do best when
the going is tough.’”
But his plans to divest programs other than those in molecular biology had obviously not
been fully formed, since he stated,
“Our laboratory building, with its phytotron complex and closely situated
field research facility, is a plant research facility unparalleled in an
academic setting”
He was presumably referring to the Environmental Biology Program. And, a statement
that was highlighted in the report,
“We are positioned to expand into new research in global environmental
biology which could be of interest to important U.S. and international
foundations that support research. Designing this and other programs that
are innovative and novel and creating ties with other for-profit or not-forprofit organizations will be a top priority for me in the coming months”.
In his 1996 President’s Report, he stressed biological biodiversity and sustainable
development as his keynote subjects. BTI had been awarded a $3,000,000 grant for
the establishment of the Park Foundation Biodiversity Project. Arntzen’s definition of
biodiversity, however, was restricted to mean the “untapped wealth providing new
sources of foods, pharmaceuticals, or other biological materials” rather than the usual
accepted definition of “the variety of life on Earth, that includes genetics, species,
ecosystems and the ecological processes of which they are a part”, or, for the
geneticist, the “totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region”. It may appear to
some that Arntzen’s definition was tailored to the new grant. After the grant was
announced, Dr. Arntzen said, “While many international biodiversity projects are
creating catalogs of existing life species, we are studying the ‘hidden biodiversity’ at the
molecular level in natural species by developing the tools to identify and manipulate the
diverse chemicals organisms produce”. It would therefore appear that there was a new
definition of biodiversity. Perhaps, the research conducted by the foundation grant could
be more accurately defined as chemical ecology. Also in 1996, an agreement was
51
formed with the Cornell Program in Biogeochemistry and Environmental Change, with
plans to have four participating scientists at BTI. Two laboratories were assigned for a
mass spectrometer laboratory for natural abundance isotope analysis.
Jonathan
Comstock, a plant ecophysiologist, was put in charge of this laboratory. Unfortunately,
Comstock, who was the Principal Investigator of a $4+ million NSF grant was essentially
fired from BTI because his research was not primarily in molecular biology. At this
writing, both Comstock and the laboratory have left BTI.
At the Board Meeting held on May 9, 1996, the Cornell Relations Committee, which
evaluates the activities and interactions with Cornell, reported that 17 of BTI’s faculty
had adjunct appointments, 16 had graduate field appointments and 13 were on
graduate committees.
Weinstein, who had chaired the
committee since its inception, became an emeritus board
member at the close of the meeting and Arntzen became the
chair of the Cornell Relations Committee.
Dr. Arntzen was the first chief executive of BTI to have his
own major research agenda and to bring in research
scientists to support it. Much of his time and effort, both
scientifically and in publicity activities revolved around the
Dr. Charles Arntzen
use of bananas to produce edible vaccines for various
diseases, including common childhood maladies such as
diarrheal disease. This research evoked a tremendous amount of publicity and it was a
common sight to see reporters and television crews setting up in various parts of the
building and greenhouses. Within one or two years, this probably resulted in more
news articles about edible vaccines than all other publicity about BTI since its inception
more than 70 years earlier.
Shortly after assuming the presidency in September, a document was issued (on
December 7, 1995) with the title “Implementation of a Reduction in Staff at Boyce
Thompson Institute”. By 1996, four senior members of the Environmental Biology
Program were encouraged to take early retirement (Delbert McCune, David MacLean,
Jay Jacobson and Richard Mandl), a situation which essentially emasculated the
program. Tom LaRue, Vladimir Macko and Donald Roberts also joined in. Although
52
their departure left large intellectual gaps, the change in direction was clear and the
gaps were never filled in those research areas. Along with the greatly encouraged early
retirement of scientists, several long-time technicians (research assistants and research
specialists) were laid off (a softer, alternate term for being fired), an event that had
never in memory happened before. The plan compensated these people according to
years of service and did not interfere with retirement benefits, although most of these
people were many years from receiving them.
Each person laid off was given health
insurance coverage for up to 12 months. But the “lay off’ created a lasting bitterness
toward BTI by many.
By 1997, BTI was, for all practical
purposes, an institution for molecular
biology with the exclusion of other areas of
research for which we had been well-known
internationally.
For example, what had
been the largest environmental biology
program in the U.S. was now a bare
shadow, known euphemistically as Forest
Dr. Daniel Klessig
Biology and often referred to as the vEBP
(virtual EBP). On the plus side, there was
no doubt that the overall quality of research at BTI was on the rise, due partly to astute
hiring by Arntzen and by the large pool of excellent and available scientists having
difficulty finding good positions due to hiring freezes and reduced research funding.
The Institute also was very supportive of Educational Outreach activities, which started
as a volunteer effort with high school students, teachers and community groups and
today is an integral part of all National Science Foundation grants. Ties with Cornell
were also strengthened and BTI scientists became more involved in Cornell activities
than before. Dr. Arntzen also pressed for continuing the reduced withdrawal from our
endowment with a goal of 5%. When he left in 2000, BTI had changed irrevocably from
an institution with a broad mandate in several important areas of research to essentially
a monoculture, with most of its efforts in molecular biology.
53
Daniel Klessig, 2000Daniel Klessig was named President of the Institute after having served as Associate
Director of the Waksman Institute in New Brunswick, NJ. He brought several postdoctoral associates with him, working in the general area of understanding signal
transduction in plants. His scientific and managerial accomplishments must wait for the
subsequent history covering from 2000 to some period in the future.
The Endowment
In 1924, the Institute started with $10 million in its endowment. By 1974, it had grown to
about $16.4 million. In 1984, Roy Young decided that the endowment funds should be
diversified and retained the first professional money managers.
As the number of managers increased, a financial consultant was retained to
recommend which managers to retain, which to replace, and to be present when new
managers were interviewed.
Endowment Market Value
($000,000)
$80.0
$60.0
$40.0
$20.0
At the end of 2000, the endowment was $80.6 million.
54
04
9
Growth of the endowment from 1974-2000 is shown above.
20
19
19
9
94
89
19
4
19
8
79
19
19
74
$0.0
Reunions
We don’t know who brought up the subject or where it was brought up, but it was
probably at a Management Committee meeting in 1993 ---- it could have been Bob
Granados whose birthday and the dedication of the institute fall on the same day (but
not the same year because the Institute was a going concern before he was born) ----.
or perhaps someone realized that we hadn’t had an Institute-wide commemoration
since our 50th Anniversary nearly 20 years earlier, and it was time. Whatever energized
it, Ralph Hardy and the faculty caught the enthusiasm and away we went. Looking back
at it after a number of years, it does seem strange that we mobilized so many people
and exerted so much effort for a 70th Anniversary celebration instead of waiting for the
traditional 75th, although that was not ignored. Sherry Hoard Ashton, who headed up
our Public Affairs Office, became the coordinator for the 70th Reunion.
Sherry’s
enthusiasm and energy was the driving force that made the reunion a huge success.
The following committees were assembled from Institute volunteers:
Science
Carl Leopold (Speakers)
Tom Davis (Poster Session)
Len Weinstein & Dick Mandl (Historical Photos and Posters)
Sherry Ashton, Ben Williams and Brian Gollands (Video)
Tours
Luke Colavito
Terry Lauver
Paul Van Leuken
Entertainment
Len Weinstein
Bobbie Kohut
Sherry Ashton
Dick Mandl (Catering)
Housing
Nancy DeLuca
Transportation
Michelle Mogil
Dick Mandl (Local)
55
Athletics
Bob Granados & Gary Blissard (Golf Tournament)
Nancy DeLuca
John Dentes
John Laurence & Mary Topa (Hike/Walk/Jog)
Actually, many other people became involved and other activities were included, such
as Winery, Museum and Ornithology Tours. A program of distinguished speakers to
commemorate “Seventy Years of Accomplishments”, was held at the James Law
Auditorium in the College of Veterinary Medicine. About 170 alumni, guests and current
Institute employees registered, but more actually attended. The Schedule of Events
and selected photographs are shown in the Appendices. Alumni and guests came from
as far as England and states ranging from California to Florida. Many of the visitors had
been at the Institute in Yonkers, and many had not returned in more than 40 years. It
was an out-of-body experience to have last seen many people as relative youths, and to
face the reality of seeing them again as senior citizens. Souvenir wine glasses, caps,
golf shirts, tee shirts, portfolios and pins commemorating the event were available at
modest prices. Sales were not as brisk as anticipated and they remained available for
quite a long time at discounted prices and some things were finally given away but it
was a wonderful event.
Five years later the Institute marked its 75th anniversary, celebrated at a much lower key
and marked by an Institute-wide banquet held at Cornell’s Statler Hotel.
Selected Research Accomplishments
(Research is not listed by the name of the scientists. See staff lists for participants).
Research at BTI has covered a wide area that reflected its diverse missions as it was
interpreted by those who led the Institute before it was narrowed so drastically by Ralph
Hardy, Charles Arntzen (especially) and subsequent Presidents. A glance at the Staff
Lists (in the Appendices) will show that research included studies on the environment,
plant pathogens, the growth and development of higher plants, nitrogen fixation, and
insect pests of plants. With such a broad scope, it is hazardous to identify research
contributions that can be rated as meritorious because that designation reflects the
background and interests of the observer. What follows, then, is an attempt by the
56
authors of this history, scientists, who had quite different careers and pursued different
goals, to point out some of the many research advances made by BTI faculty over the
years 1974 to 2000. No doubt there are others. International research is discussed
elsewhere in this document under International Programs.
Biological Control of Insects
Gypsy moth is a serious pest of many trees, especially oaks, in the Northeast. During
1989 and 1990, epizootics of the fungal pathogen, Entomophaga maimaiga, were found
to be decimating gypsy moths. The fungus had been imported from Japan in 1984 for
use as a biocontrol agent but had escaped. Personnel from BTI released the fungus
anew into uninfected areas in order to study it effectiveness in controlling gypsy moth in
different environments. These studies led to improvements in the stability and
effectiveness of the fungus for gypsy moth control.
Viral pathogens of insects were also studied, and BTI scientists developed cultures of
insect tissues as a part of their experimental protocols. For example, researchers found
that baculoviruses can disrupt the peritrophic membrane of lepidopterous insects by a
protein, Enhancin, thereby greatly increasing the toxicity of the virus to its host. In turn,
this led to the development of several valuable types of tissue cultures which were
patented and licensed for commercial use. Another commercially important patent was
a method for the high-density rearing of insect larvae, which vastly reduced the cost for
rearing insect larvae required for research. Baculoviruses were also used as a model
system to study insect transcriptional and translational mechanisms relating to viral
infection. An exquisite understanding of the molecular biology of the function of the
baculovirus membrane and regulation of baculovirus replication has flowed from this
work.
One of the major problems with using baculoviruses as insecticides was that they kill
insect pests too slowly compared with chemical insecticides. However, using the new
tools of biotechnology the Institute rapidly began to adopt, pesticidal genes from many
sources could readily be introduced into the virus. The problem, then, became one of
how to introduce genetically engineered baculoviruses into crops growing in open fields
without damage to the environment, especially those caused by genetic drift where the
engineered virus might affect non-target insects in the population or even weeds or
57
other crop plants. To study this problem, BTI faculty engineered a nuclear
polyhedrosis virus from the gypsy moth insect by deleting the polyhedrin gene, the gene
required for occlusion (encapsulation) of virus particles. Without the polyhedrin gene,
the virus cannot replicate. The deleted polyhedrin gene could then be replaced with a
foreign gene whose product would enhance pathogenicity of the virus. With permission
from the U.S. EPA, this first release of a genetically-engineered virus in an open field
was approved in 1989, the engineered virus was found to rapidly decline in the field,
and the application of an engineered virus was considered a great success.
Entomopathogenic fungi are a group of fungi that colonize various species of insects,
and they and their products can be used to control insects. BTI researchers described
the structure of efrapeptins, peptides toxic to insects, from fungi in the genus,
Tolypocladium, and beauvericin, a cyclodepsipeptide from fungi in the genus, Fusarium,
secondary metabolites, might be used for the control of insects like mosquitoes.
Research on insects focused on chemical factors involved in the recognition of hosts
and the effects of the environment on the production of those factors, including
chemicals in plants that modify the behavior of insects such as host location recognition
for egg laying. For example, studies were conducted to explain the different host ranges
of related butterflies. One crucifer was shown to have compounds called 'cardenolides'
that act as deterrents to insect visitation, and it was shown that two closely-related
pierid butterflies have quite different host ranges based on their differing sensitivity to
the cardenolides.
Researchers discovered that some chemicals in plants stimulated the insect pest to lay
eggs on the host plant. One such 'oviposition stimulant' in cabbage was found to be
glucobrassicin, and the compound was studied for possible control of the cabbage
butterfly, Pieris rapae. Chemicals in plants that deterred oviposition were also studied,
and chlorogenic acid from Nasturtium was found to be such a deterrent. One twist to the
story was that chlorogenic acid was a deterrent if the insect first fed on cabbage. In
contrast, if the insect fed continuously on Nasturtium, it led to habituation, and the
larvae fed normally.
Institute scientists studied the mechanisms that fungal insect pathogens use to colonize
their insect hosts. These studies included the developmental stages used by the fungus
58
to colonize its host insect, and the virulence factors secreted by the pathogen, and
they also developed a transformation system in order to study the function of the
virulence factors. One of these factors included a proteinase, Pr1, which Institute
scientists showed were coded by the ssg gene, and the region where the Pr1 protein
bound to insect cuticle bound was also discovered. When Pr1 was over-expressed in
the insect host, death of the insect was hastened, but they also discovered that the
insect responded to entry of Pr1 by activating its polyphenol oxidase system to melanize
the cuticle and thus defend against the fungal pathogen.
Bioregulant Chemicals (Sponsored Research)
Several companies have sponsored the search for chemical pesticides at BTI, and
several remarkable compounds were discovered that were useful for the control of plant
pests. Two notable compounds developed by Diamond-Shamrock Corp. were Dacthal,
a pre-emergent herbicide, and Daconil, a foliar protectant fungicide. Sponsorship by
The Union Carbide Corp. led to the discovery of Sevin, a popular insecticide that
degrades in the soil thus avoiding chemical contamination.
Environmental Biology.
Studies on effects of air pollution on plant growth, yield and quality trace back to the
Institute’s founding. More recently, BTI scientists have studied effects on plants of
fluoride, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, acid rain, chlorine and many other
pollutants. Program scientists have served on committees that have established Federal
and State air quality standards for sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and fluoride,
as well as on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board. One
development by program scientists was the design of the open-top chamber, an
innovation that allowed researchers to study effects of air pollutants in the field in a
realistic manner. The chambers are still used throughout the world more than 35 years
after their introduction. Another important development was the widely-used computer
program, TREGRO, that evaluated the ways that the suppression of the rate of
photosynthesis by ozone exposure could cause shifts in the allocation of carbon to
individual trees. It has been used extensively by the USEPA and the US Forest Service.
For many years, much of the effort was directed to studies on the impacts of airborne
fluoride, easily the most toxic of all common air pollutants to plant life. The BTI group
59
was recognized as perhaps the foremost research group on fluoride effects in the
world and developed what are now standard methods for the analysis of fluoride in
biological materials and the atmosphere. Studies were carried out in the laboratory and
field, and ranged from biochemical and physiological effects to responses on plant yield
and quality.
As molecular biology became increasingly dominant at the Institute, the Environmental
Biology Program lost much of its cachet and support and was eliminated
Estuarine Biology
When BTI moved to Ithaca from Yonkers, it became necessary to end the study of the
Hudson River biota. The very large project was replaced with a smaller one, a project
on the impact of the human population on estuarine biology. An important separate
study was to determine the habitat and population of the Atlantic sturgeon and the
short-nosed sturgeon in the estuary. The results of the Hudson River project were
summarized in “An Atlas of the Biologic Resources of the Hudson Estuary” published in
1977.
Nitrogen Fixation
A large number of scientists were engaged in at least some aspect of studies on
nitrogen fixation by higher plants. Some of the accomplishments from these studies
have been recorded in our review of International Programs and will not be repeated
here.
At about the same time as BTI started the International Program, it established new
studies at on the molecular biology of nitrogen fixation by rhizobial bacteria to
complement the field work in less-developed countries. Studies were also initiated on
the transfer of gene clusters (Nif gene) for nitrogen fixation from a procaryote
(Klebsiella, Clostridium, Rhizobium) to a eucaryote (yeast, higher plant). Indeed, BTI
scientists completely sequenced the Rhizobium nifB gene. At its core, were several
projects on plant roots and symbiotic nitrogen fixation. This group also developed
Luciferase vectors suitable for transforming tobacco. The vectors were patented. A new
species of bacterium, Photorhizobium thompsonum, was newly described that was
shown to fix both nitrogen and oxygen, i.e., the bacterium was both a symbiont and was
photosynthetic.
60
Scientists demonstrated for the first time that both plant and microbe chlorophylls can
contribute to energy self-sufficiency for nitrogen fixation by root nodules. It was shown
that cytokinin was involved in limiting nodule numbers on roots, a step that conserves
plant energy. In addition, Institute scientists discovered a factor in a mutant of peas that
regulated nodule number on roots.
Plants and Human Health
BTI scientists have worked to create plant-based oral vaccines for use to alleviate
disease in less-developed countries. They first showed that specific, single genes from
human or animal pathogens (bacteria and viruses) could be transferred to plants, and
the gene-product retained its immune stimulating properties of the original pathogen.
Second, they showed that the "vaccine" in the plant cells did not have to be purified but
was orally active if the plant was consumed as food. Third, they showed that oral
immunization by plant-delivered vaccines was effective in human clinical trials. They
have especially focused on producing a pediatric vaccine in ripening banana fruit to
alleviate diarrhea in infants.
Plant Production
Two projects on seed physiology were included in this program area. One project was
on gravitropism, while another was on the stability of seeds under long-term storage. A
significant discovery was the 'glassy state' in stored seeds. This explained how seeds
survive long periods of dry storage to become desiccated. The discovery was patented,
and has been licensed for use as a vaccine delivery system including the delivery of
insulin to diabetics.
In the area of gravitropism, Institute scientists showed in corn, that while amyloplasts
were accessories to the gravity sensor, they were not the sensor itself as then believed.
Instead, scientists showed that the cytoplasm was the sensor and that the starch
granules potentiate the sensitivity of sensing.
Plant Stress.
BTI scientists have studied various species of the rust fungi which cause serious crop
losses. They isolated and identified chemicals secreted by the fungus that keep the
spores of the pathogen from germinating until it has been dispersed by the wind, the
self-inhibitors, and they discovered how these fungi, which penetrate their host plants
61
through the stomatal opening, are able to recognize the stomate, a signal located on
the lip of the stomatal guard cell. Genes were also cloned that were involved when a
rust fungus develops the appressorium, the structure that sits over the stomatal
opening, the first genes cloned from a rust fungus, a difficult feat since the fungus grows
only on a living host plant.
Some fungal pathogens of plants secrete toxins, virulence factors that cause the plant
host to become susceptible to infection. Institute scientists were the first to describe the
correct structures for important members of this group of compounds including Victorin,
secreted by the fungus that causes the Victoria blight of oats, the first of these hostspecific toxins to be discovered, and the toxin responsible for the symptoms of eyespot
of sugarcane. Several labs in the world now seek to understand how plants synthesize
such a complex compound.
Plant Molecular Biology
Cytokinins.
Cytokinins act as a mitogen to stimulate cell division and as a morphogen to
regulate root development. BTI scientists developed cytokinin mutants of Arabidopsis,
including one mutant for the cytokinin-response gene, ckr1. This mutant would not
respond even to high concentrations of cytokinin. They also showed that the effects of
cytokinin were mediated by ethylene.
Molecular biology of environmental tolerance. (Some of this research was carried out in
collaboration with scientists in Environmental Biology).
Mutants were used to study the role of plant pigments against UV-B radiation.
They found that sinapic esters not flavanoids were the key UV-B sunscreens in plants.
They also found that in Arabidopsis infected with the CaMV virus, it is the polyhedron
that is damaged by UV-B not the viral DNA. Other mutants developed were the first
ozone-sensitive mutant (deficient in accumulation of ascorbic acid), the SOZ1 mutant
(deficient in accumulation of ascorbic acid, the SOZ1 mutant was sensitive to UV-B,
SO2, and virulent pathogens), and an aluminum tolerant mutant that was found to
exclude aluminum.
Nutritional quality of plants.
62
To improve the nutritional quality of plants, scientists studied the genetic
regulation of synthesis of tyrosine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and anthranilate. They
developed Arabidopsis lines that were deficient in each gene. Among other findings,
they showed that enzymes for these genes were in the chloroplast, and that the
pathways for their synthesis were regulated post-transcriptionally by a variety of stress
conditions and pathogens.
Plant viruses.
BTI scientists studied the process by which the maize streak virus (MSV)
subverts the molecular machinery of a plant cell to parasitize it. Among other findings,
they found that MSV uses a corn-cell transcription factor to promote expression of the
viral coat protein gene. They discovered a natural form of virus resistance, a factor
coded by the CAR1 gene, in Arabidopsis that prevents movement of the virus from cell
to cell in a host plant.
Control of gene expression in chloroplasts.
Researchers in this area have been studying the function and metabolism of
chloroplasts from the algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, especially to better understand
intracellular communication at the genetic level. BTI scientists have sequenced the
chloroplast genome, and proved that gene expression in the chloroplast changes
significantly in response to abiotic stresses such as phosphate and sulfur limitation.
Among other discoveries, they showed that the activity of an important enzyme called
PNP, found in chloroplasts as well as microorganisms, declines precipitously under
phosphate stress, indicating that both PNP and the chloroplast are part of the cell's
phosphate-sensing, intracellular communication network in Chlamydomonas.
Studies like these enable BTI scientists to better understand the complex mechanisms
plants use to interact with their environment and to survive in what are now an
inhospitable place.
63
INDEX
A
abiotic stress
63
Adenauer, Konrad
18
air pollution
6, 16, 17, 38, 59
Albany, New York
14, 25, 47
Alder Estate
5, 21
Alexander, Martin
34, 35
algae
63
Allen, Ruth
49
aluminum
35, 45, 62
aluminum ion toxicity
35
American Phytopathological Society
49
amyloplasts
61
anthranilate
63
App, Alva
9, 27, 34, 35, 37
appressorium
62
Arabidopsis
62, 63
Arntzen, Charles
26, 38, 43, 45, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 56
Arthur, J.M.
38
ascorbic acid
62
Ashton, Sherry
43, 55
Asian Research and Vegetable Development Research
Center
33
Atlas of the Biologic Resources of the Hudson Estuary 60
DESIRE Program
47
Distinguished Lecture Series
44
Environmental Biology6, 15, 16, 24, 38, 45, 50, 51, 52,
59, 60, 62
Executive Committee8, 9, 12, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32,
39, 40, 44, 49
Finance Committee
31
Forest Biology Program
35, 53
Insect Pathology Research Unit
35
Management Advisory Committee
42
Pension Plan
42, 43
Physiology of Parasitism Program
35
Plant Molecular Biology Program
45, 50, 62
Plant Production Program
46, 61
Plant Protection Research Unit
35, 45, 46, 50
Plant Stress Program
35, 38, 45, 46, 61
Public Affairs
43, 55
Research Advisory Committee
5, 26, 44
Science Advisory Board
46
Southwestern Arboretum
39
Staff Organizing Drive
42
Boyce Thompson, Col. William
3, 5, 18, 29
Brazil
36, 46
Brazilian Federal Agriculture Research Organization
36
Buckley, Theodore
46
C
B
bacteria
37, 61
baculovirus
57
banana
61
bark beetle
18, 22, 23
Barton, Lela V.
4, 38
Baruch, Bernard
18, 19
Beaumont, Texas
20, 22, 23
beauvericin
58
Biddle, Margaret T.
23
biocontrol
36, 57
biodiversity
51
biological control
17, 46
biological pest control
46
biomedical material
49
bioregulant chemicals
17
BioTechnica International
41
biotechnology
45, 50, 57
black oak
23
Blissard, Gary
46, 56
Bogorad, Laurence
44
Boyce Schultz Downey Scientist
45
Boyce Thompson
Research Advisory Committee
5, 26, 44
Research Oversight Committee
44
Boyce Thompson Institute 3, 4, 6, 10, 13, 22, 23, 26, 51, 52
Annual Meeting of Members
20, 26, 32
Board of Directors
5, 8, 9, 26, 39, 41, 44, 48
Dedication Symposium
17
cabbage
37, 58
cabbage butterfly
58
cabbage looper
37
cardenolides
58
Cellular Therapy
18
Chlamydomonas
63
chlorogenic acid
58
chloroplast
45, 63
chloroplast function
45
Churchill, Winston
18
Colavito, Luke
55
Comstock, Jonathan
45, 52
Consultative Group on Agricultural Research
33
Continental Oil
31
Cook, Constance
9
Cooke, W.D.
32
corn
61
Cornell Univeristy
Affiliation Agreement
10, 15, 16, 32
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences17, 32, 33, 39,
40
Department of Entomology
17, 35, 47
Department of Plant Pathology
17, 47
School of Veterinary Medicine
17, 56
Science and Technology Program
34
Cornell University
3, 5, 10, 14, 17, 28, 32, 33, 34, 38
Corson, Dale
32
cowpea
36, 37
cowpea weevil
37
Crocker, William C.
cross-talk
Cutting, David
cytokinin
cytoplasm
18, 25, 38, 46
49
14
61, 62
61
D
Daconil
Dacthal
Daoust, Richard
Davis, Thomas
DeLuca, Nancy
Denny, F.E.
Dentes, John
Dewayne Torgeson
Diamond-Shamrock Corporation
Distinguished Achievement Award
Dobroscky, Irene
DuPont
Dutchess County, New York
59
59
36
55
55, 56
38
43, 56
9, 15, 25, 26, 40
59
45
3
41, 50
19
E
Eaglesham, Alan
35, 36, 37
Eckerson, Sophia
4
edible vaccines
52
Entomology
4, 12, 38
entomopathogenic fungal research
35, 36
environmental biology
4, 51, 53
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 45, 47, 49, 58, 59
enzyme
47, 63
estuarine biology
60
eucaryote
39, 60
F
Farnum, C. Wadsworth
flavanoids
fluoride
Ford Foundation
Forest Biology
Forest Service
Fulton, Robert
fungi
Fusarium
30, 31
62
59
17
35, 53
22, 49, 59
29, 30
36, 38, 49, 58, 61
58
G
gene expression
45, 63
genetically-engineered virus
58
Gestetner Corporation
24
glassy state
61
glucobrassicin
58
Goetze-Clarens, Wolfgang
18
Gollands, Brian
55
Göttingen, Germany
22
Granados, Robert33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 55,
56
granules potentiate
Grass Valley, California
gravitropism
green algae
Gruissem, Wilhelm
gypsy moth
61
20, 22, 23, 24
46, 61
36
49
49, 57, 58
H
Hague, James D.
23
Hajek, Ann
46, 48, 49
Hardy, Ralph25, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50,
55, 56
Harrar, George
33
Hartzell, A.
38
herbicide
59
Hess, Charles
39
Hitchcock, A.E.
24, 38
Hoch, Harvey C.
49
Hohenlohe, Christian
29, 30, 41
holistic plant studies
38
Holmes, F.O.
38
Howell, Stephen
43, 45, 48, 49, 50
Hudson River Country Club
20, 24
Hudson River, New York
4, 20, 22, 24, 46, 60
Hughes, Patrick
22, 23, 37, 49
I
immunization
61
inoculation
36
insect pathology
35
Insect Pathology Resource Center
35
insecticide
25, 59
Institute of Biosciences and Technology
50
insulin
61
International Agriculture
27
International Center for Research on Corn and Wheat
(ICRCW)
34
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (ICTA)
33
International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology
(ICIPE)
37
International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid
Tropics (ICRIST)
33
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) 33, 36
International Potato Center (IPC)
34
International research
35, 57
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) 33, 34, 35, 36
isotope analysis
52
Ithaca, New York
3, 9, 12, 15, 16, 31, 32, 33, 40, 60
J
Jacobson, Jay
52
K
Kelly, James F.
Kennedy, W. Keith
32
32
Index
Klessig, Daniel
Kohut, Bobbie
Kohut, Robert
Kunkel, L.O.
43, 54
55
43
3, 38, 50
L
Langridge, William
Lankow, Richard
LaRue, Thomas
Last, Robert
Laurence, John A.
Lauver, Terry
legumes
Lehman, Jeffrey
Lenoir Estate
Leopold, Carl
Lord, Jeffrey
39, 46
14
46, 52
45, 48, 49
44, 46, 48, 50, 56
55
36, 37, 38
16
20, 21
46, 49, 55
36
M
M. anisopliae
47
Macko, Vlado
52
MacLean, David
52
maize
63
Mandl, Richard
14, 15, 52, 55
Martin, Robert Corp.
21, 28, 29, 34, 35
mass spectrometer
52
McCallan, S.E.A.
3, 5, 6, 9, 14, 17, 22, 23, 26, 38, 39, 41
McCune, Delbert
34, 52
McNew, George L.4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 18, 21, 25, 26, 31, 39, 40,
45
Melhop, Donald
14
Messina, Frank
37
Metarhizium anisopliae
36, 47
Mexico
34
Mexico City, Mexico
34
microorganisms
36, 63
Miller, L.P.
38
mitogen
62
Mogil, Michelle
55
molecular biology 26, 35, 37, 39, 42, 46, 50, 52, 53, 57, 60
molecular genetics
4, 38, 39
mycoplasma
38
N
Nasturtium
58
National Academy of Sciences
50
National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) 42
National Park Service (NPS)
49
National Science Foundation (NSF)
34, 47, 52, 53
Nepera Park Farm
24
New Brunswick, NJ
54
New York State3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 28,
29, 31, 32, 34, 37, 41
Agency Bonds
14, 28, 29, 31
Department of Commerce
11
Dormitory Board
14
Legislature
9
State Univeristy (SUNY)
8, 10, 17, 28, 29
Thruway Authority
19
Newmont Mining Corp
17, 23, 31
Niehans, Paul
18, 19
nitrogen
17, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, 56, 59, 60, 61
Nitrogen Fixation 17, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, 56, 60, 61
Nixon, Richard
34
North Star Gold Mine
23
nuclear polyhedrosis virus
58
O
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
46
oats
62
oral vaccines
61
Oregon State
8, 9, 10, 11, 24, 28, 30
Legislature
8
Oregon State University (OSU)8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 24,
28, 30
Memorandum of Agreement
8
Oswald, John
44
oviposition stimulant
58
ozone
49, 59
P
Palm, Charles
10, 39, 50
Park Foundation
51
Park, Bernet
15
Passer, Jerry
41
pathogen
34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 46, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63
Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler
41
Pennoyer, Robert
41
pesticide
24, 25, 59
Pfeiffer, Norma
4
Phelps Dodge
31
phenylalanine
63
pheromones
22, 35
Philippines
33, 35, 36
phosphate
63
Photorhizobium thompsonum
60
photosynthesis
59
Pieris rapae
58
Pius XII, Pope
18
Plant Growth and Development
46
plant physiological ecology
45
plant physiology
38
plant stress
35, 38, 45, 46, 61
polyhedrin gene
58
ponderosa pine
23
procaryote
39, 60
proteinase
59
Purdy Beale, Helen
4, 38
R
radiation
Reich, Steven
62
34
Index
Renwick, J. Alan
22, 23, 37
Research Advisory Committee
5, 26, 44
Research Oversight Committee
44
rhizobial bacteria
36, 60
rice
34, 35, 36, 38
Roberts, Donald
27, 34, 36, 37, 46, 47, 52
Robinson Enterprises
24
Rockefeller Foundation
30, 33, 34, 47
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
3, 5, 50
Rockefeller, Nelson
8, 10, 30
Rockefeller, Rodman
30
Rombach, Michael
36
Romney, Miles
9
Russell, Larry
43
rust uredospore physiology
38
S
Santini Brothers Contracting Co.
15
Schroeder Naess & Thomas
31
Schultz Downey, Peggy
45
Searls, Fred
17, 18, 19, 23
seed physiology
38, 61
Setterstrom, C.
38
signal transduction
54
sinapic esters
62
Smith, William T.
8, 28, 29, 31, 32, 41
Soper, Richard
35
Sour Lake, Texas
22
Southern Forest Research Institute
22
SOZ1 mutant
62
Stanfordville, New York
20
Staples, Richard
1, 17, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 45, 47, 48, 49
Stern, David
45
Stever, Guyford
34
stomate
62
streak virus
63
stress physiology
38
sturgeon
60
sulfur
59, 63
sulfur dioxide
59
Superior, Arizona
39
Swanson, Gloria
18
symbiont
60
Szalay, A.A.
37, 39, 46
T
Texas A & M University
tobacco
Tolypocladium
Tompkins County
Area Development Committee
Tompkins County, New York
Topa, Mary
Torgeson, Dewayne
toxin
TREGRO
tryptophan
Tulecke, Walter
50
60
58
14
14
45, 56
9, 15, 25, 26, 40
62
49, 59
63
18, 19
tyrosine
63
U
UNDP
34, 36, 37
UNEP
34, 36
Union Carbide
5, 25, 26, 27, 59
Unionization
5, 24, 25, 26, 27, 59
United Auto Workers
42
United States
Agency for International Development (AID)
47
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
35, 47, 50
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
45, 47, 58
Forest Service
22, 49, 59
National Institute of Health (NIH)
47
University of California at San Diego
45
Unsworth, Michael
49
V
van Houtte, Raymond
Van Leuken, Paul
VanDemark, Noland L.
Vité, Jean Pierre
14
55
33
22, 23
W
Waksman Institute
54
Washington State University
5
Way, Jerry
19
Weinstein, David
49
Weinstein, Leonard1, 9, 15, 16, 18, 19, 25, 26, 29, 34, 39,
45, 52, 55
Wellman, Richard H.5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31,
32, 33, 34, 39, 40
Westchester County, NY
19, 22
Whetzel, H.H.
5
Whiteman, Osterman & Hannah, LLP
25
Wightman, Orrin
21
Wilcoxon, F.
38
Williams, Ben
47, 55
Wilmorite Corporation
24
Wilson, Malcolm
8
Wilson, Ramsay
31
Wilson, Woodrow
3, 8, 31
Wood, Alan
14, 37, 48
Wortman, Sterling
30
Wraight, Steven
36
Y
Yonkers, New York
Young, Roy
3, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 28, 56, 60
8, 30, 39, 41, 54
Z
Zimmerman, Percy W.
24, 38
Index