Charles Egolf Clifton (March 23, 1904–October 7, 1976) was an American microbiologist. He was a faculty member at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for forty years, authored two textbooks, and was the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

of the peer-reviewed journal the '' Annual Review of Microbiology'' for twenty-five years.

Early life and education

Charles Egolf Clifton was born on March 23, 1904, in Etna, Licking County, Ohio to parents Lulu and Allen Benton Clifton. He had one sister, Margaret Kuhn. He graduated from the Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 1925 and a master's degree in physical chemistry in 1926. Clifton attended the University of Minnesota for his PhD, graduating in 1928. He said that he received the first PhD in biophysics awarded in the US.

Career

After graduating, Clifton worked at Kodak's research laboratories for several months. Clifton was an instructor at the University of Minnesota before getting hired by Stanford University in 1929 to teach bacteriology. In 1936 and 1937, he took a sabbatical leave from Stanford to do research at Cambridge University with Marjory Stephenson and in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, Netherlands with Albert Kluyver. World War II labor shortages caused him to agree to teach microbiology courses at San Jose State University. His research included new ways to manufacture

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

. He also authored the textbooks ''An Introduction to the Bacteria'' and ''An Introduction to Bacterial Physiology''. He was a member of several scientific societies, including the American Society of Microbiologists, the

Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine The Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (abbreviated SEBM) is a nonprofit scientific society dedicated to promoting research in the biomedical sciences. Founding The SEBM was founded in 1903, after Samuel J. Meltzer proposed founding a ...

, and Sigma Xi. From 1969 to his death in 1976, he was a professor

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in the Department of Medical Microbiology at Stanford. He was the first

of the peer-reviewed journal the '' Annual Review of Microbiology'', which was first published in 1947. He remained editor through 1972 and was succeeded by

Mortimer P. Starr Mortimer Paul Starr (April 13, 1917–April 29, 1989) was an American microbiologist. After graduating with a PhD at Cornell, he briefly taught at Brooklyn College before accepting a position at University of California, Davis, where he staye ...

Personal life and death

Charles Clifton married Esther Ora of Bruce, South Dakota, on September 7, 1932. He and Esther had two sons, Charles Jr. and John. During the 1950s, he had two major surgeries; while recovering from the second surgery, he began painting with watercolors as a hobby. He also enjoyed gardening. He died on October 7, 1976, in Santa Clara, California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Charles E 1904 births 1976 deaths Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Minnesota alumni Stanford University faculty People from Licking County, Ohio American microbiologists Ohio State University Graduate School alumni Annual Reviews (publisher) editors