Milton P. Gordon, 75; Scientist Showed Trees Clean the Environment

Milton P. Gordon, 75, who documented the cleansing effects of trees on the environment and became a pioneer of genetic engineering in plants, died July 5 at his home of Shy-Drager syndrome, a degenerative disease, said his wife, Elaine “Sunnie” Gordon.

Gordon was a University of Washington professor and associate editor of the journal Biochemistry for more than three decades. He was one of the first scientists to publish significant research on phyto-remediation, the ability of trees and other plants to absorb and neutralize ground-based contaminants.

He and a Washington colleague, microbiology professor Eugene W. Nester, later showed that agrobacterium tumefaciens, a simple bacterium, could be used to introduce a growth hormone gene into plant cells, a technique used by other scientists to make plants more nutritious and insect-resistant.

Gordon was unmoved by critics who saw the results of genetic alteration as “frankenfood”

“Genetic engineering is the basis for a new agricultural revolution,” he said. “It’s a partial answer to world hunger.”

He retired from the university as professor emeritus in 2003.