Egbertus van Slogteren

Egbertus "Egbert" van Slogteren (9 April 1888 in Groningen – 17 October 1968 in Haarlem) was a Dutch professor of horticulture and phytopathology, known for his research on flower bulbs and diagnosis of viral diseases in plants.

Biography Egbert van Slogteren grew up in Groningen. After graduating from the Groningen Gymnasium in 1907, he studied botany and zoology at the University of Groningen, From 1911 to 1915 he worked as an assistant to Professor Jan Willem Moll, who became his doctoral advisor. In 1917 Van Slogteren obtained from the University of Groningen his doctorate degree cum laude with dissertation De gasbeweging door het blad in verband met stomata en intercellulaire ruimten After he was given leave from the infantry, he became on 11 April 1917 a wetenschappelijk ambtenaar (scientific official) assigned to the Institute for Phytopathology in Wageningen. Within a few years he discovered that the stem nematodes that damage daffodil flower bulbs could be killed by immersing daffodil bulbs in water at 43 °C. for approximately 4 hours, without damaging the bulbs. He found that the warm water treatment against stem nematodes also worked for other bulbous plants. Furthermore, the warm water treatment also killed insects, mites, and fungi. He also developed a hot air treatment that killed the bacteria which caused the "yellow or new disease' in hyacinth bulbs. At the Agricultural College in Wageningen, he was appointed in 1925 a professor extraordinarius and was promoted in 1953 to professor ordinarius. In addition to his scientific research, he travelled thousands of kilometres each year to establish and maintain contact with flower bulb growers. He did lengthy experiments to find treatments to enable optimal flowering of hyacinth, tulip, and narcissus bulbs. Van Slogteren's laboratory was the first in the Netherlands to introduce the method of using steam to disinfect soil contaminated with pests. He wrote many scientific papers, not only in Dutch, but some in French and English.

In 1953 he was appointed a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. For many years he was a church councilor of Haarlem's Mennonite Congregation. When he retired from his professorship and directorship in 1958, the staff of the Laboratorium voor Bloembollenonderzoek had grown to sixty people, one of whom was his son, ir. D.H.M. van Slogteren.

Selected publications