Helen Hart papers

Helen Hart, B.S. (1922), M.S. (1925), Ph.D., 1929, University of Minnesota. Instructor (1933-1939), assistant professor (1939), associate professor (1944), professor (1947-1966) in plant pathology at the University of Minnesota. Joint appointment with the United States Department of Agriculture (1923-1933); editor-in-chief, Phytopathology (1944-1951), president, American Phytopathological Society (1955). Pioneer in the use of controlled environments to study host-pathogen relationships.

Helen Hart was born September 2, 1900 in Janesville, Wisconsin to Richard and Alice Hart. She graduated from high school in 1918, and enrolled at Lawrence College (now Lawrence University). In 1920, she transferred to the University of Minnesota, thus beginning a professional relationship with the University that covered 46 years, culminating in her retirement as Professor Emerita in 1966.

A commemorative article (“Helen Hart, Remarkable Plant Pathologist, 1900-1971” by Roy Wilcoxson Annual Review of Phytopathology1996 34: 13-23) includes reminiscences by former colleagues. According to the article, Hart informed her professors in the Plant Pathology and Botany Department of her interest in continuing her botany studies after graduation and was initially discouraged by E.C. Stakman from entering the field because of his concern that women scientists would not be fairly compensated for their work. Hart applied for admission to the graduate program while Stakman was traveling out of the country, and was admitted by Professor Julian Leach in his absence. Hart began the program in 1922, and in 1923 was hired as an agent for the Office of Cereal Crops and Diseases, a USDA program. Hart’s work in that office and in the classroom kept her in continuous contact with Stakman, who would become first her advisor, and later a good friend and colleague. Stakman’s research focused on the role fungi played in plant diseases, and Hart began her graduate research career focusing on flax rust. Her Ph.D. thesis, “Morphological and Physiological Studies on Stem Rust Resistance in Wheat” explored stem rust resistance and susceptibility in wheat rust tissues. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 1929. Hart and her advisees were pioneers in the use of controlled environments to study host-pathogen relationships. Her work is now considered fundamental to the understanding of pathogen specialization and cultivar resistance.

Beginning in 1945, Hart chaired the Department’s Language and Editorial Committees. As such, she oversaw the department’s required reading exam, where she was an exacting teacher and editor. She was also the editor for Aurora Sporealis, the alumni magazine of the Department of Plant Pathology during the 1930s and 1940s.

Hart served as an Associate Editor for Phytopathology, the principle publication of APS from 1938-1940. In 1944, she became the first woman Editor-in-Chief of Phytopathology, a position she held until 1951. Hart became President-Elect of APS in 1954 and the first woman President of the Society in 1955. She was awarded the Department of Plant Pathology’s EC Stakman Award in 1963 for her contributions to the understanding of cereal rust disease, and shortly thereafter became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Helen Hart died in Oregon on May 2, 1971, where she had moved in 1970 to live with her sister Jane.