William J. Robbins

(1890-1978) born at North Platte. Botanist, educator, administrator, pioneered research in plant tissue culture, developing a method of propagating virus-free root tips in large quantities and demonstrating that vitamins are essential for the growth of fungi and crops such as corn, cotton, and peas; authored or co-authored 240 articles and the 1929 textbook Botany, was botany professor for 28 years and an administrator for nearly 50 years, including director of New York Botanical Garden from 1937 to 1958 when scientific productivity substantially increased; elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1940. Consult Current Biography (1956) 515-517 and National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Vol 60 (1991) 293-328 and American National Biography, Vol 18 (1999) 588-590.

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