Person
Cobb, Nathan Augustus (1859 - 1932)
- Born
- 30 June 1859
Spencer, Massachusetts, United States of America - Died
- 4 June 1932
Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America - Occupation
- Plant pathologist and Biologist
Summary
Nathan Cobb was pathologist in the New South Wales Department of Agriculture 1890-1904, with a period abroad as special commissioner to report upon the agricultural and other industries of America and Europe from 1898-1901. He vigorously tackled a situation where not only was the same name applied to different kinds of wheat, but the same wheat was known under several different names. His paper "Universal nomenclature of wheat", published in the Agricultural gazette in 1901-1904, attracted worldwide interest.
Details
Born 30 June 1859. Died 4 June 1932. Educated Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science and University of Jena (PhD 1887). Farm labourer; qualified as a schoolteacher; taught at Spencer ca 1876-77; science teacher, Williston Seminary, Easthampton 1881-86; study in Germany 1887; Naples Zoological Station, British Association for the Advancement of Science 1888-89; arrived Sydney 7 March 1889; various jobs 1889; temporary professor of biology, University of Sydney 1890; pathologist, New South Wales Department of Agriculture 1890-98 and 1901-04, special commissioner to report upon the agricultural and other industries of America and Europe 1898-1901 and possibly attended 1900 Congrès International d'Agriculture, Paris, in this capacity; head, division of pathology and physiology, Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association in Honolulu 1905-07; agricultural technologist (later principal nematologist), Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture from 1907. Sometime president, American Microscopical Society, American Society of Parasitologists, Washington Academy of Sciences and Helminthological Society of Washington.
Archival resources
Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science
Published resources
Books
- Spennemann, Dirk H. R., Nathan Augustus Cobb Plant Pathologist: a Bibliography of his work (Albury, New South Wales: Retrospect, 2003), 114 pp. http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~dspennem/BookStore/CobbBibliography.pdf. Details
Book Sections
- King, C. J., 'Cobb, Nathan Augustus (1859-1932), Plant Pathologist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds, vol. 8 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 39-40. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080042b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- Blanchard, Frieda Cobb, 'Nathan A. Cobb, botanist and zoologist, a pioneer scientist in Australia', Asa Gray Bulletin, 3 (2) (1957), 205-72. Details
- Cobb, N. A., 'Universal nomenclature of wheat', Agricultural gazette of New South Wales, 12 (1902), 1614-29. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1664295. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/2851361. Details
- 'Cobb, N A (1859-1932)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-584311. Details
McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 15 February 2018
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education