Milton Zaitlin

{{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Milton Zaitlin | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date |1927|04|02}}<ref name=aps /> | birth_place = Mt. Vernon, New York<ref name=aps /> | death_date = {{death date and age |2016|10|11 |1927|04|02}}<ref name=obit /> | death_place = Ithaca, New York<ref name=obit /> | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | home_town = | other_names = | pronounce = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Virology | workplaces = Cornell University | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor = Samuel G. Wildman | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Milton Zaitlin''' (April 2, 1927 – October 11, 2016) was an American virologist who spent most of his academic career as a professor of plant pathology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

==Education and academic career== Zaitlin was born on April 2, 1927, in Mt. Vernon, New York. He was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, from which he received his bachelor's degree in plant pathology in 1949. After a brief period conducting research at the California Institute of Technology, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, from which he received his Ph.D. in 1954 under the supervision of Samuel G. Wildman. He spent four years working as a research officer for CSIRO in Australia before returning to the United States to work at the University of Missouri in Columbia.<ref name="aps">{{cite web |title=Milton Zaitlin |url=https://www.apsnet.org/members/awards/AwardofDistinction/Pages/MiltonZaitlin.aspx |website=American Phytopathological Society |access-date=2 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="obit">{{cite web |last1=Ramanujan |first1=Krishna |title=Milton Zaitlin, pioneer of plant virology, dies at 89 |url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/03/milton-zaitlin-pioneer-plant-virology-dies-89 |website=Cornell Chronicle |access-date=2 January 2019 |date=27 March 2017}}</ref>

In 1960, Zaitlin joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in the Department of Agricultural Biochemistry, where he remained until 1973. During this period he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship<ref name="guggenheim">{{cite web |title=Milton Zaitlin |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/milton-zaitlin/ |website=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |access-date=2 January 2019}}</ref> and Fulbright scholarship, which supported a return to CSIRO in Australia. He moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1973 and remained there until his retirement, assuming professor emeritus status, in 1997.<ref name=aps /><ref name=obit />

Zaitlin was one of the founding members of the American Society for Virology and was the organizer of its inaugural annual meeting at Cornell in August 1982.<ref name=obit /><ref name=joklik>{{cite journal |vauthors=Joklik WK, Grossberg SE |title=How the American Society for Virology was founded |journal=Virology |volume=344 |issue=1 |pages=250–7 |year=2006 |pmid=16364755 |doi=10.1016/j.virol.2005.09.022 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Research== Zaitlin focused his research on plant viruses, especially on mechanisms of replication, the effects of mutants on the viral replication cycle, and mechanisms of resistance to viral infections. He was particularly influential in the study of tobacco mosaic virus,<ref name=aps /> a model system for the study of viral infections of plants on which he co-edited a positively reviewed<ref name="qrb">{{cite journal |last1=Mayo |first1=Mike |title=Tobacco Mosaic Virus: One Hundred Years of Contributions to Virology. Karen-Beth G. Scholthof, John G. Shaw, Milton Zaitlin |journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology |date=December 2000 |volume=75 |issue=4 |pages=458 |doi=10.1086/393660}}</ref> book with Karen-Beth G. Scholthof and John G. Shaw.<ref name="tmv100">{{cite book |editor1-last=Scholthof |editor1-first=Karen-Beth G. |editor2-last=Shaw |editor2-first=John G. |editor3-last=Zaitlin |editor3-first=Milton |title=Tobacco mosaic virus : one hundred years of contributions to virology |date=1999 |publisher=APS Press |isbn=978-0890542361}}</ref> He has been listed as a "pioneering plant pathologist" by the American Phytopathological Society.<ref name="pioneer">{{cite web |title=Milton Zaitlin |url=https://www.apsnet.org/about/history/pioneeringplantpathologists/Pages/ZaitlinMilton.aspx |website=American Phytopathological Society |access-date=2 January 2019}}</ref>

==Awards and honors== * Elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1969<ref name=obit /> * Elected fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, 1978<ref name=obit /><ref name=aps /> * American Phytopathological Society Award of Distinction, 2006<ref name=obit /><ref name=aps />

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaitlin, Milton}} Category:American virologists Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Category:Cornell University faculty Category:University of Missouri faculty Category:American phytopathologists Category:1927 births Category:2016 deaths