Christine Buisman
| Christine Buisman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Christine Johanna Buisman 22 March 1900 Leeuwarden, Netherlands |
| Died | 27 March 1936 (aged 36) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Resting place | Westerveld Cemetery, Driehuis, Netherlands |
| Occupation | Phytopathologist |
| Years active | 1926–1936 |
Christine Johanna Buisman (Dutch pronunciation: [krɪsˈtinə joːˈɦɑnaː ˈbœysmɑn]; 22 March 1900 – 27 March 1936) was a Dutch phytopathologist who dedicated her short career to the research of Dutch elm disease and the selection of resistant elm seedlings. In 1927, Buisman provided the final proof that Graphium ulmi (later named Ophiostoma ulmi) was the causal agent of the disease, concluding the controversy which had raged among Dutch and German scientists since 1922.
Buisman developed the inoculation method for screening large numbers of elm plants for resistance, and in 1932 discovered the generative form of the fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi. The first ever resistant elm clone released in the Netherlands was named for her in 1937, following her untimely death the previous year.
Buisman was the eldest of four children raised in a liberal and socially conscious family in Leeuwarden. She completed her secondary education at the local gymnasium in 1919, after which she studied Biology in Amsterdam, her main interest at that time being marine flora. During 1923–24, Buisman joined practical courses at the phytopathology laboratory “Willie Commelin Scholten” in Baarn, a small town near Amsterdam. The laboratory was accommodated in the leafy Villa Java alongside the Centraal Bureau voor Schimmelcultures (fungicultures) (CBS), where Buisman also worked as an assistant, both institutions led by Prof. Johanna Westerdijk (1883–1961), the first female professor in the Netherlands, appointed in 1917. In 1927, Buisman was awarded a doctorate by Utrecht University.
At the end of 1926, funds were granted for further research into the cause of Dutch elm disease. Buisman was charged with this two-year project, and part of the villa garden was duly planted with elm seedlings. To infect so many plants, Buisman experimented the use of a syringe, a method which would be used in successive decades. In 1927, she succeeded in producing both vascular discolouration and leaf wilt, simply by inoculating her trial plants earlier in summer than Bea Schwarz had done in 1921, confirming the results achieved by Wollenweber and Stapp in Berlin, providing the definitive proof that Graphium ulmi caused Dutch elm disease (DED).
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