Percy Wragg Brian FRS FRSE CBE (5 September 1910 – 17 August 1979) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

botanist and mycologist. He was critical to the development of plant pathology and natural antibiotics such as

Gibberellin Gibberellins (GAs) are plant hormones that regulate various developmental processes, including stem elongation, germination, dormancy, flowering, flower development, and leaf and fruit senescence. GAs are one of the longest-known classes of plan ...

and

Griseofulvin Griseofulvin is an antifungal medication used to treat a number of types of dermatophytoses (ringworm). This includes fungal infections of the nails and scalp, as well as the skin when antifungal creams have not worked. It is taken by mouth. C ...

Life

He was born in Hall Green, Yardley to Percy Brian (1881–1945), a schoolteacher from Macclesfield and his wife Adelaide Wragg. His early education was at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent day school for boys in the British public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by King Edward VI in 1552, it is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Bir ...

. He graduated from

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

in 1931. He was awarded a PhD in 1936 and

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

in 1951, and he was elected a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge in 1968. His first employment was as Assistant Mycologist at

Long Ashton Research Station Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) was an agricultural and horticultural government-funded research centre located in the village of Long Ashton near Bristol, UK. It was created in 1903 to study and improve the West Country cider industry and ...

where he worked from 1934 to 1936. In 1936 he began at ICI's facility at

Jealott's Hill Jealott's Hill is a village in the county of Berkshire, England, within the civil parish of Warfield. The settlement is on the A3095 road approximately north of Bracknell. The nearest railway station is in . The name of the hill is reported to ...

before moving in the late 1930s to their Butterwick Research Laboratories (later renamed Akers) as Mycologist and in 1946 was promoted to Head of Microbiology. He served in this role for ICI until 1961 and spent his final two years with them as Associate Research Manager. During this period, in 1962, he was on a team which discovered new antibiotics produced by fungi. He was appointed to the Regius Chair of Botany at

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1962, leaving six years later to become Head of the Cambridge Botany School. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1958. In 1964 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was President of the

British Mycological Society The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi. Formation The British Mycological Society (BMS) was formed by the combined efforts of two local societies: the Woolhope Naturalists' Field ...

in 1959 and 1965; President of the Association of Applied Biologists in 1961; and President of the Society of General Microbiology from 1965 to 1968.

Family

He married twice, firstly to Iris Hunt in 1934 (dissolved) secondly to Meg Gilling in 1948. His younger brother, Michael Vaughan Brian (1919–1990), was an entomologist, specialising in ants.

References

1910 births 1979 deaths Scientists from Birmingham, West Midlands Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge 20th-century British botanists Professors of Botany (Cambridge) {{UK-botanist-stub