Ezra Jacob Kraus (March 19, 1885 – February 28, 1960) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

horticulturist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

. Kraus was born in

Ingham County, Michigan Ingham County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 284,900. The county seat is Mason. Lansing, the state capital of Michigan, is largely located within the county. (Lansing is the only ...

and earned a bachelor's degree at

Michigan State Agricultural College Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

in 1907. He taught horticulture at

Oregon State College Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

, (now Oregon State University) for several years before earning a PhD in botany at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1917. He returned to Oregon State where he served as dean of the Division of Basic Arts and Sciences (1917–1919), and in 1919 was hired by the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, where he taught botany until 1927. He then taught botany at the University of Chicago, where he served as chair of the department from 1934 to 1947 and officially retired from the university in 1949, after which he became a visiting professor at Oregon State College. He died in 1960 in Corvallis.

References

External links

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Guide to the Ezra J. Kraus Papers 1915–1947
at University of Chicago Library 1885 births 1960 deaths American botanists People from Ingham County, Michigan University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago alumni Oregon State University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty American horticulturists {{US-botanist-stub