Robert Earle BUCHANAN

BUCHANAN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/13/2008 at 22:11:24

Robert Earle Buchanan (1883-1973) was born in Cedar Rapids and grew up in Eagle Grove. He was a member of the faculty at Iowa State College from the time he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1904. He received his master’s degree from Iowa State in 1906. He served as the first head of the Bacteriology department from 1910 until 1948, the first dean of Industrial Science, and the first dean of the graduate college from 1919 until 1948. He also was director of the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station from 1933 to 1948. Buchanan achieved world recognition in the field of nomenclature. Thanks to him, Iowa State University has one of the world’s foremost libraries on bacteriological classification. Buchanan advanced the idea of organizing and conducting swine breeding research on a regional basis through the cooperation of experiment stations. In 1940, he was instrumental in getting federal support for agricultural research at land grant experiment stations. His research continued long after his retirement, and he traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East and South America on government aid missions to developing nations.

Namesake for Buchanan Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

http://www.housing.iastate.edu/places/buchanan-wallace/buchanan.php