A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
Date: Sun 16 Dec 2012
Richard Ian Hamilton, 1930-2012
--------------------------------------
Richard "Dick" Hamilton was born in Montreal, Canada on 14 Dec 1930 and passed away in Vancouver on 30 Oct 2012. He received a BS degree in Agronomy at Montana State University (MSU) in 1953, and MS and PhD degrees at the University of Nebraska in 1956 and 1960, respectively, working on the purification and serology of _Brome mosaic virus_ (BMV) and ilarviruses.
In 1960, he joined the Department of Botany and Bacteriology at MSU where he developed a practical assay for _Barley stripe mosaic virus_
(BSMV) that could detect the virus in individual barley embryos within
24 hours. As a result, the virus soon became of low incidence and concern [in Montana].
In 1967, he joined the Department of Plant Pathology, McGill University, Quebec. His research included seed transmission of plant viruses and interactions between viruses in mixed infections. Work with _Southern bean mosaic virus_ established that seed transmission was from virus held in the seed coat. He demonstrated that barley plants infected with BSMV became susceptible to invasion by _Tobacco mosaic virus_ (TMV).
In 1972, he joined the Virus Chemistry and Physiology section of Agriculture Canada. Research on mixed [virus] infections in barley resulted in detection of genomic masking of TMV genomes in BSMV capsids. He completed research on serological methods for detecting _Pea seed-borne mosaic virus_ in pea seed. He observed the contamination of the pollen exine by plant viruses and also demonstrated the presence of virus particles in the embryonic cells of soybean seeds infected with _Tobacco ringspot virus_.
Dick also led projects in developing countries. One of these was a collaboration in western and southern Africa showing that monoclonal antibodies would benefit efforts to control viruses of major African food crops. He also addressed mixed virus infection that was causing a serious disease of sweet potato in tropical Africa [sweet potato virus disease, see links below].
Throughout his career, Dick Hamilton was chosen for leadership roles.
He served in editor roles on the journals Phytopathology and the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Annual Review of Phytopathology.
He was chairman of the Virology Committee and the Seed Pathology committee of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) and was made a Fellow of APS in 1986. He was also chairman of the Plant Virus Subcommittee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and was an active member of the International Working Group on Legume Viruses. He also served on the Program Committee of the International Congress of Virology and was instrumental in bringing the 6th International Congress of Plant Pathology to Montreal.
He was president of both the Canadian Phytopathological Society (CPS,
1986) and the International Society for Plant Pathology (ISPP, 1993-1998). While president of the ISPP, he approached ProMED-mail, which was looking for a plant disease moderator to take over from Pamela Anderson. He assumed that position in 1999, and by the time he left it in 2007, he had moderated very nearly 1000 posts on plant disease outbreaks, adding his expert commentary to most of them.
Dick was committed to helping others, both professionally and in his personal life, through numerous charitable activities. A Guest Book has been set up in his name in which a message can be left for the
family:
--
Prof. Em. Allan Dodds
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology University of California Riverside, CA, USA <allandodds@hotmail.com>
- Mod.JW]
[Pictures
Sweet potato virus disease:
Links
Sweet potato virus disease:
and
All virus taxonomy via:
CPS:
APS:
ISPP:
ICTV:
[see also:
Viruses, sweet potato - China: survey 20120309.1065164
2010
---
Viruses, virus-like pathogens - Pacific Islands 20100514.1572
2007
---
Viruses, sweet potato - Papua New Guinea, Solomon Is. 20070901.2880 Viruses, sweet potato - worldwide: synergism 20070624.2042 Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus, sweet potato - USA (NC)
20070420.1291
2006
---
Sweet potato leaf curl virus - Kenya: 1st report 20060521.1438 Feathery mottle virus, sweet potato, Italy: 1st report 20060315.0808
2004
---
Sweet potato viruses - Spain 20040404.0929
2003
---
Sweet potato leaf curl - Peru 20030104. 0020 1997 and additional items on the viruses in the archives]
Topics
Species
