Forest Pathology and Mycology
The Josiah L. Lowe - Hugh Wilcox Graduate Scholarships
A scholarship endowment honoring the lifetime academic achievements of Drs. Josiah L. Lowe and Hugh E. Wilcox was initiated with a generous donation from Dr. Chin S. Yang, PhD '84, and his wife, Julie. Since then, families, colleagues, alumni and friends have contributed generously.
The endowment supports graduate scholarships in mycology, forest pathology and plant physiology. Continuing and matriculating graduate students may apply for the award annually. A faculty committee selects outstanding students to receive these competitive awards.
Faculty members in the plant science and biotechnology, and the forest pathology and mycology concentrations invite you to join them in honoring these two pioneering scientists and educators. Contributions will support a new generation of scientists and scholars whose careers will serve as a living monument to the enthusiasm, dedication, ability and contributions of Drs. Lowe and Wilcox.
1997 Award. The first award, $500, was made in 1997 to Ms. Astrid Ferrer from a field of seven applicants. Astrid is a native of Colombia and is pursuing a Ph.D. degree. She is studying the ecology of wood-decay fungi at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. The scholarship helped defray Astrid's travel and field expenses.
1998 Award. We anticipate awarding $2000 to the successful applicant for the 1998 Lowe-Wilcox Scholarship.
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Josiah L. Lowe
BS, New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse, 1927 PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1938 |
Josiah Lowe began his luminous teaching career at the College of Forestry (now known as the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, or ESF) in 1938 and continued for nearly 20 years after his retirement in 1975. Dr. Lowe died April 30, 1997 at the age of 92.
Joe taught botany and mycology. He initiated a four-semester sequence of advanced mycology courses emphasizing specimen identification in both the laboratory and field, research techniques, and familiarity with both classic and current literature that greatly benefited students. Joe is world-renowned for his classic research on lichens and wood-inhabiting fungi, especially polypores. He and his students contributed major advances to the systematics of those fungi. Many former students are now in influential positions in North American mycology and forest pathology. Another legacy is a rich, specialized collection of fungi in the College Herbarium.
Joe served as president of the Mycological Society of America (MSA) in 1960-61. His lifelong devotion to mycology was celebrated at his 70th birthday (1976) by a special commemorative issue of the Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. In 1985, he received the Distinguished Mycologist Award of the MSA and in 1987, he received a SUNY Honorary Doctor of Science degree.
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Hugh E. Wilcox
BS, University of California, 1938 MS, New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse, 1940 PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1950 |
After working on the Manhattan Project during World War II, Hugh Wilcox served as associate professor of Forest Products and Wood Technology at Oregon State from 1946-50. He then joined ESF as project director of the first research program administered by the SUNY Research Foundation. He was appointed to the faculty in 1954 and taught plant physiology and mycorrhizae. He continued in research, directing graduate students and even taught well after his retirement in 1986, until relocating to Oregon in 1996.
Hugh's research spanned a diversity of subjects, but he is best known for his studies of morphogenesis in tree roots and of their mycorrhizal associations. He frequently contributed many chapters and reviews on those subjects. To the many graduate students he influenced and to his colleagues, Hugh was regarded as a researcher's researcher and served as a font of knowledge drawn upon by many, both within and outside the Syracuse community.