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Experimental Morphology and Morphogenesis Then and Now: A Symposium in Memory of Elizabeth G. Cutter

Jernstedt, Judy [1].

Experimental Morphology and Morphogenesis Then and Now: A Symposium in Memory of Elizabeth G. Cutter--Introduction.

Professor Elizabeth G. Cutter had a distinguished career in teaching and research in experimental plant morphology and developmental plant anatomy. She earned a First Class Honours B.Sc. in botany in 1951 from St. Andrews University in Scotland, followed by a Ph.D. in botany in 1954 from the University of Manchester, under the supervision of Prof. C. W. Wardlaw. In 1955, she joined the staff of the Department of Botany in Manchester, and in 1964, was awarded a D. Sc. by the University of St. Andrews. That same year, Elizabeth was recruited to succeed Katherine Esau, who had just moved from the Department of Botany at the University of California, Davis to UC Santa Barbara. In 1969 and 1971, Elizabeth published a two volume work, Plant Anatomy: Experiment and Interpretation. A second edition of Part I, Cells and Tissues, followed in 1978. These small books influenced and inspired a generation or more of students of plant structure and development because they presented a comprehensive account of what was then known of the interrelationships of plant physiology, especially growth regulators, and plant developmental anatomy. The mid-1950s through the early 1970s were golden years in experimental plant morphology. New techniques were rapidly appearing; nearly every experiment resulted in an important new insight into the control of plant development, and Elizabeth Cutter, her mentor (Wardlaw), and her students and colleagues were in the thick of this. Between 1954 and 1970, Elizabeth and her collaborators published five papers in Nature and two in Science, along with over three dozen other papers in leading botanical journals. Following her return to Manchester in 1972, Elizabeth’s responsibilities shifted to cryptogamic botany; she now taught phycology and developed an interest in mosses, in addition to her fern work. In 1979 she assumed the George Harrison Chair in botany and became Head of the Botany Department. She presided over the centenary of the department in 1980 and its demise in 1986 upon the reorganization of biology and medicine at Manchester. She retired in 1989 and devoted the next four years to research in Manchester. In 1993, Elizabeth relocated to Melrose, near Edinburgh,and pursued her lifelong interests in photography and angling, the former through expeditions to Europe, Australia,and southern Africa. Elizabeth Cutter died in October, 2010, at the age of 81, ten weeks after diagnosis of advanced colon cancer.

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1 - University Of California Davis, Department Of Plant Sciences, Davis, CA, 95616-8515, USA, 530/752-7166

Keywords:
morphogenesis
Elizabeth G. Cutter
experimental morphology
Developmental anatomy.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY09
Location: Delaware B/Hyatt
Date: Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Time: 8:20 AM
Number: SY09SUM
Abstract ID:38


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