John Colhoun

John Colhoun (born 15 May 1913 in Castlederg, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland – 5 January 2002 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) was a British mycologist, phytopathologist, and professor of cryptogamic botany. For a one-year term from 1963 to 1964 he was the president of the British Mycological Society.

Life Born into a farming family, John Colhoun preferred an academic approach to agriculture. There he graduated in 1933 with a BSc in botany, in 1934 with a degree in agricultural botany with first class honours, and in 1937 with an M.Agr. in mycology and plant pathology. Supported by research assistantships at QUB and at the Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland, he did research from 1934 to 1940 at Imperial College London and at QUB. The research concerned how nutrition and nitrogen content are related to the growth of fungal pathogens that damage apples. Colhoun's research lead in 1940 to his PhD from Imperial College London.

During the 20 years of Colhoun's professorship in Manchester, he or his colleagues trained over 70 postdoctoral students in phytopathology. At the University of Manchester, he did research on plant pathogens in the genera Fusarium, Phytophthora, Septoria, and Phoma and diseases of economically important plant species, including cereals, chrysanthemum, yam, oil palm, and banana. Overseas governments invited him to provide expert advice on vascular wilt disease. During his overseas trips he became familiar with diseases of date palms in Algeria and of oil palms in Nigeria. His familiarity with such diseases led to the creation of northern England's hottest and brightest glasshouses.