Ronald Karslake Starr Wood

Ronald Karslake Starr Wood, (8 April 1919 – 26 April 2017) was a pioneer British plant pathologist, and Professor of Plant Pathology at Imperial College London. He was the first academic to be appointed chair in physiological plant pathology in England and Wales.

Early life and education Wood was born in the coal-mining town of Ferndale, south Wales, in 1919 to a working-class family. During World War II, he worked at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. He was awarded a PhD in 1948 from the University of London. He was also the secondary advisor to the pioneering Ghanaian plant pathologist, George C. Clerk during his PhD studies. In 1950, he was a Commonwealth Fund Fellow. Additionally, he was a Research Fellow at the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station in 1957. Among his other positions were the Director of the NATO Advanced Study Institute in the years 1970, 1975 and 1980. He was the Sir C. V. Raman Professor at the University of Madras in 1980.

His work covered botanical microbial infection, plant disease control, especially of soil-borne biotrophic pathogens and relatively unknown plant diseases. He also wrote the Phytotoxins in Plant Diseases (1972) and Active defense mechanisms in plants (1982)

Awards and honours Wood was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served as the honorary secretary of the Association of Applied Biologists (AAB) and the chairperson of the Plant Pathology Committee of the British Mycological Society (BMS). He was the Secretary-General of the First Institute Congress of Plant Pathology in 1968. He chaired the Governing Body of the E. Mailing Research Station and served as the governor of the Institute of Horticultural Research. The German Federal Republic awarded Wood the Otto-Appel-Denkmunze in 1978 at the third International Congress of Plant Pathology held in Munich.

Works Physiological plant pathology, Blackwell Scientific, 1967 Phytotoxins in Plant Diseases, (edited with A. Ballio and A. Graniti) NATO Advanced Study Institute, 1972 Disease in higher plants, Oxford University Press, 1974, Specificity in Plant Diseases (edited with A. Graniti) 1976, Active defense mechanisms in plants Volume 1980, Plenum Press 1982 Plant Diseases: infection, damage and loss (editor) 1984. Physiological Plant Pathology Comes of Age, Annual Review of Phytopathology, Vol. 25: 26-40 (September 1987)