Katherine Esau; Plant Anatomist

Katherine Esau, 99, an internationally known plant anatomist who chronicled the effects of viruses on tobacco and sugar beet plants. Esau taught and conducted research at UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara for more than 30 years and was among the first to use an electron microscope. Her work contributed significantly to the field of developmental plant anatomy--the study of cellular changes that occur during maturation. Esau retired from teaching when she was 67, but continued her research until she was 92. She was the fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1989 received the National Medal of Science from President George Bush. Born in the Ukraine to German Mennonite parents, Esau studied agriculture in Moscow until the Russian Revolution forced her family to flee to Germany in 1917. After she graduated from the Agricultural College of Berlin, the family moved to California. She began her career working for the Spreckles Sugar Company of Salinas, developing a more disease-resistant variety of sugar beet. She earned her doctorate at UC Berkeley. On Wednesday in Santa Barbara.