Thomas Jonathan Burrill

Thomas Jonathan Burrill ( born April 25, 1839 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, † April 14, 1916 ) was an American botanist. His botanical author abbreviation is " Burrill ".

Life and work

In 1868 he became a professor at the University of Illinois.

Burrill discovered bacterial causes of plant diseases; In addition to various phytopathogenic fungi he first described the bacterial pathogen of fire blight, Erwinia amylovora (as Micrococcus amylovorus ). He also described a kind of Micrococcus gallicidus (later Pasteurella gallicida ), which however is now regarded as a synonym of Pasteurella multocida.

Works

• A bacterial disease of corn. Champaign [ Ill.]: University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, 1889.
• Fire blight: the foundation of phytobacteriology / selected papers of Thomas J. Burrill, Joseph C. Arthur and Merton B. Waite; edited, with introductory and Concluding essays, by Clay S. Griffith, Turner B. Sutton and Paul D. Peterson. St. Paul, Minn.:. APS Press, C2003