Harold Henry Flor

{{Short description|American phytopathologist (1900–1991)}} thumb|right|Harold Henry Flor

'''Harold Henry Flor''' known as '''H. H. Flor'''<ref name="NDSU" /><ref name="Staples-2000">{{cite journal | title=Research on the Rust Fungi During the Twentieth Century | journal=Annual Review of Phytopathology | publisher=Annual Reviews | year=2000 | volume=38 | pages=49–69 | last=Staples | first=Richard C. | issue=1 | doi=10.1146/annurev.phyto.38.1.49 | issn=0066-4286}}</ref> (1900–1991) was an American plant pathologist famous for proposing the gene for gene hypothesis of plant-pathogen genetic interaction whilst working on rust (''Melampsora lini'') of flax (''Linum usitatissimum'').

==Life and career==

Harold Henry Flor completed his B.S. at the University of Minnesota in 1922, and continued on to an M.S. degree there for the following two years.<ref name="Ellingboe">{{cite journal |title=H.H. Flor: Pioneer in Phytopathology |year=1987 |doi=10.1146/annurev.py.25.090187.000423 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.py.25.090187.000423|last1=Loegering |first1=W. Q. |last2=Ellingboe |first2=A. H. |journal=Annual Review of Phytopathology |volume=25 |pages=59–66 |pmid=25946553 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He received his M.S. degree in June 1924 for his research work entitled <nowiki>''Control of covered smuts of small grains''. Between January 1924 and May 1925 he worked at Iowa State College as a Research Fellow and completed his work on the ''Fungicidal activity of furfural''</nowiki> there. For a year between September 1925 to September 1926 he worked as a Research Fellow at the graduate school of the University of Minnesota, following which he completed a research work on root rot in sugarcane supervised by E.G. Edgerton at the State University of Louisiana. His collective research at these three institutions earned him a PhD degree awarded by the University of Minnesota in June 1929.<ref name="Ellingboe" />

Between 1929 and 1931, H.H. Flor worked at the US Department of Agriculture at Washington State University, where he cultivated his interest in genetics.<ref name="Ellingboe" /> In 1931 he moved to North Dakota Agricultural College, where he proposed the term "Avirulence gene".<ref name="NDSU">{{cite web | title=History | website=NDSU Agriculture and Extension | date=2021-06-28 | url=http://www.ag.ndsu.edu:8000/agriculture/academics/academic-units/plant-pathology/about/history | access-date=2022-03-14 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314143934/https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/academics/academic-units/plant-pathology/about/history | archive-date=2022-03-14 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Staples-2000" /><ref name="APS-bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.apsnet.org/about/history/pioneeringplantpathologists/Pages/FlorHaroldHenry.aspx|title=Biography from the American Phytopathological Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222045146/http://www.apsnet.org/about/history/pioneeringplantpathologists/Pages/FlorHaroldHenry.aspx|archive-date=2019-02-22|url-status=dead}}</ref> He remained there for the rest of his career, until retiring in 1969.

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flor, Harold Henry}} Category:American phytopathologists Category:1991 deaths Category:North Dakota State University faculty Category:1900 births Category:20th-century American botanists Category:20th-century American agronomists