Cecil Edmund Yarwood

Cecil Edmund Yarwood (1908–1981) was an American-Canadian plant pathologist whose work focused on obligate parasites of plants, viruses, and conditions that predisposed plants to infections. He is considered an authority on rust (fungus) and powdery mildew. He grew up on the Canadian–American border near Sumas, Washington, giving him dual citizenship. Graduating from high school at the age of 15, he spent much of his time managing the family farm.

Yarwood spent his entire career at the University of California, Berkeley, starting in 1934 as an instructor and junior plant pathologist and retiring in 1975 as a full professor. He served on the editorial board for the scientific journals Phytopathology and Virology, and was also the president of the Pacific Division of the American Phytopathological Society in 1946. He continued to research and publish after retiring. This was possible, he found, because powdery mildew fungi (Erysiphe polygoni, E. graminis, and E. cichoracearum) had 4.5 times higher water content than some other fungal conidia. He also showed that about half of all known basidiospores at the time had a vertical orientation while attached to the basidium. Work previously done by Arthur Henry Reginald Buller had stated that the spores were horizontally oriented.

Although not a virologist, Yarwood did some work on virus transmission, interaction, and characterization. He also worked to improve the timing of virus assays by demonstrating that there is sometimes a latent period after inoculation when the virus is difficult to detect.

Awards and recognition Guggenheim Fellowship to the University of Cambridge, 1957 Miller Research Professorship, awarded by the Miller Institute at UC Berkeley, 1963–4 Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, 1965 Honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of British Columbia, 1979